from Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji (GA)
Panaji, Oct 16: Allegations of rape on education minister Atanasio Monserratte's son have snowballed into a political crisis with the group of ministers seeking to replace the chief minister himself.
The crisis is a direct fall out of the recent spat between home minister Ravi Naik and education minister Atanasio Monserratte. The state police had booked latter's 21-year-old son for raping a minor German girl. Monserratte had claimed that he and his family were being targeted by the home minister.
The group of ruling legislators including Churchill Alemao, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Agnelo Fernandes, Jose Philip D'Souza, Manohar Asgaonkar, Chandrakant Kavlekar met last night at Monserratte's residence to chalk out revolt against Kamat.
"The group sympathetic towards Monserratte contended that the legislator is being unnecessarily targeted by home minister and chief minister is a silent spectator to it," a Congress minister who participated in the meeting said.
The group, which has launched an exercise to garner more support from the other legislators, has decided to submit the memorandum to the high command by afternoon, sources confirmed.
The alliance partner NCP's legislature wing leader Jose Philip D'Souza is also the part of group which met last night. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), another alliance and both the independents have not spelt their stand on the issue.
Sensing trouble, the Congress high command commissioned its senior leader Rajiv Shukla to the State to defuse the crisis on Thursday October 16.
"Shukla will be arriving in the State as there are some disturbances between an alliance partner and police," All India Congress Committee general secretary B Hariprasad said this morning.
Atanasio Monserratte is a United Goans Democratic Party (Unattached) legislator and has been instrumental in toppling several governments in the recent past.
Monserratte was inducted in the cabinet recently after Congress minister Dayanand Narvekar was forced to resign following charges of cricket ticket scam framed against him by the local court.
Kamat said that he is not disturbed by the happenings and is ready to step down. "There are bound to have ramification whenever such incidents happen," he said referring to the case against Monserratte's son.
Digamber Kamat-led coalition government enjoys support of 25 legislators including 17 Congress, 3 Nationalist Congress Party, one United Goans Democratic party , two Maharashtrawadi Gomantak party and two independents. The opposition Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has 14 legislators.
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