Centre plays safe on Goa, Sonia snubs MLAs
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 09, 2005 11:32:50 PM ]
NEW DELHI: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi snubbed party's Goa legislators who had come to New Delhi to seek resumption of "popular rule".
Although the 18 MLAs who claimed majority in the Goa assembly were presented to President APJ Abdul Kalam and PM Manmohan Singh separately, ostensibly in a bid to undo some of the damage caused by the Jharkhand developments, it seemed clear that the party does not want to reopen the Goa tinderbox by reviving the House that has been kept under suspended animation.
It supported home minister Shivraj Patil's criticism of the way the confidence vote that Pratapsinh Rane had won was conducted.
Nagesh Bhatcar
