The Goa political crisis took a new turn on Friday with the three defiant NCP MLAs, who pulled the rug from the Congress-led government and reducing it to a minority, saying their party should be allowed to form a new ministry.
State NCP sources claimed that the MGP (2), Independent MLA Vishvajit Rane and lone UGDP legislator Atanasio Monsarratte have extended support for their party to lead the new government.
The seven-month-old Digamber Kamat government plunged into crisis on Wednesday after the three NCP MLAs and Rane decided to withdraw support.
Sources declined to say whether the new grouping is banking on senior partner Congress or Opposition BJP for support to get majority in a House of 40. It was not immediately clear whether the state NCP's government formation had the approval of the party leader Sharad Pawar.
Before the crisis began, the Congress-led coalition had 23 seats--Congress(16), NCP(3), SGF(2) and Independents(2).
In the Opposition, BJP and MGP had 14 and 2 seats respectively. UGDP's Monsarrattee was unattached.
Significantly, senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy had a meeting with the NCP legislators on Friday amid allegations by the Congress that the saffron party was instigating the legislators to destabilise the Congress-led government.
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