Dropped minister Francis D'Souza threatens to quit BJP core committee in Goa

Ailing Goa BJP legislator Francis D'Souza, who was recently dropped from the Manohar Parrikar- led Cabinet, said Thursday he would resign from the state party's core committee once he returns from the US.

Dismissing rumours of resigning from the post of MLA as a mark of protest, D'Souza, who is admitted at a hospital in the US for an undisclosed ailment, said this is his fight for "self-respect".

Parrikar, who is admitted in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi because of a pancreatic ailment, had Monday dropped BJP ministers D'Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar from his Cabinet.

BJP MLAs Milind Naik and Nilesh Cabral were inducted in their places.

D'Souza, who headed the Urban Development Department, was unhappy over his removal from the state Cabinet, and had asked if this was the reward given to him by the party for his 20-year-long loyalty.

"I will resign from the Goa BJP unit's core committee once I am back on October 15. I don't want anything from the party in future. Even if offered, I will not take up any government position," D'Souza told PTI over the phone.

The core committee is the BJP's key decision-making body in Goa, comprising senior leaders like Parrikar, Union minister Shripad Naik and party state chief Vinay Tendulkar, among others.

"I am fighting for my self-respect. If you can't respect that, then I don't want anything from you. It's all over," said D'Souza, who got elected on the BJP ticket from Mapusa constituency in North Goa district for the past two decades.

Asserting that he would not quit as an MLA, he said, "I have been elected by my voters for five years, so there is no question of resigning as legislator. If I resign, I would be disrespecting my voters."

He said it was the chief minister's right to keep or drop him from the Cabinet.

"Nobody can interfere in the chief minister's right. There is no role of the party high command in my dismissal from the cabinet," he said.

However, criticising Parrikar's style of functioning, he said the chief minister does not take advice from anyone, including the party high command.

D'Souza alleged that "few leaders" in the BJP were trying to get him removed from the party since 2012.

"May be they felt that I overstayed in their party. Usually, any guest should not overstay. I have been there for too long in the BJP," he said.

Claiming that he had joined the BJP on Parrikar's request, D'Souza said he would not advise his son, who is aiming for a political career in Mapusa, to join the party.

-PTI