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Updated: Mar 27, 2019 23:26 IST

Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Ramkrishna Sudin Dhavalikar was dropped from the Goa cabinet on Wednesday after two of the three lawmakers of his party defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the coalition government in the state.

The BJP and Congress now have 14 members each in the assembly, which has the current strength of 36. Three Goa Forward Party members and as many independents support the BJP-led coalition government. The BJP formed the government even as the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the 40-member assembly in 2017 with 17 members. Three lawmakers have since left the Congress.

Deepak Pauskar, one of the two MGP defectors, was expected to be inducted as the deputy chief minister in place of Dhavalikar late on Wednesday. He quit the MGP along with Manohar Ajgaonkar to join the BJP on Tuesday night. “[Dhavalikar] will cease to be a minister in the council of ministers headed by the CM [Pradeep Sawant] with immediate effect,” governor Mridula Sinha’s said in a notification.

Sawant said the MGP’s insistence on contesting the Shiroda assembly bypoll against the BJP led to Dhavalikar’s sacking. Dhavalikar’s brother, Deepak, was named as the MGP’s candidate even as it was a part of the BJP-led government. The bypolls to Shiroda, Mandrem and Mapusa seats will be held along with the Lok Sabha polls in the state on April 23. The Shiroda and Mandrem bypolls were necessitated after the Congress lawmakers Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte resigned from the assembly and joined the BJP in October last year.

The Mapusa seat fell vacant after BJP lawmaker Francis D’Souza’s death on February 14. The bypolls to the Panaji assembly constituency is yet to be announced. Late former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who passed away on March 17, represented Panaji in the assembly.

The anti-defection law does not apply if over two-third legislators quit a party. In a letter to assembly speaker Michel Lobo, the two lawmakers who quit the MGP said they “constitute 2/3rd members of the legislative party.” The MGP demanded that Dhavalikar be made the chief minister after Parrikar passed away, according to BJP legislator Michael Lobo.

Sawant, who succeeded Parrikar, said they did not split the MGP. “They [the two MGP legislators] decided to form a separate group saying that they were not safe there,’’ he said. He added they also said that there was a fear that they would be rendered as unattached MLAs or sacked .

“MGP is a party of the people.” He accused the BJP “of dacoity, which has shocked Goa’s people,” Dhavilkar said.

The Association for Democratic Reforms’ Bhasker Assoldekar said it is easy to blame politicians. “But the voters also need to introspect because at the end of the day we get the politicians we deserve. Voters repeatedly vote for the candidates, who have a history of defections...”