Parrikar to be Goa CM, Jaitley gets additional charge of defence

New Delhi, March 13 (IANS): Over two years after he quit as chief minister of Goa to become the nation’s defence minister, Manohar Parrikar is set to take over the coastal state’s mantle again on Tuesday at the head of a BJP-led government.
The decks were cleared for Parrikar to take oath as Goa chief minister with president Pranab Mukherjee on Monday accepting his resignation as defence minister and assigning additional charge of the ministry to finance minister Arun Jaitley.
“The president has accepted Manohar Parrikar’s resignation from the council of ministers with immediate effect under clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution,” a president office statement said.
Earlier in the day, Parrikar resigned to head a new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Goa.
Parrikar has been chief minister of Goa twice before — from October 2000 to February 2005 and from March 2012 to November 8, 2014, when he was appointed the defence minister of India. On Sunday, he was appointed by the BJP to head the new government. Goa governor Mridula Sinha has asked Parrikar to prove majority on the floor of the Goa Legislative Assembly 15 days after taking oath.
He has claimed the support of 21 lawmakers in the 40-member Goa assembly. The BJP with 13 MLAs is supported by three legislators each of the Goa Forward Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and two independent legislators.
Parrikar sent a faxed letter of resignation to the Prime Minister’s Office ahead of the oath taking ceremony, set for Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Raj Bhavan in Goa.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president Amit Shah would be present at the swearing-in ceremony.
The president, as advised by the prime minister, has also directed that Arun Jaitley shall be assigned the charge of the defence ministry in addition to his existing portfolios, the statement said.
Jaitley was earlier too handling defence, from May 26, 2014 – when the Narendra Modi government was sworn in – till November 9, 2014, when the portfolio was handed over to Parrikar.