Friday, June 10 2005 15:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane today (Jun 10, 2005) expanded his Cabinet, inducting seven of his party men but did not include Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Francisco "Mikky" Pacheco in the Ministry.

Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs Digambar Kamat Atanasio "babush" Monserratte and Pandurang Madkaikar as well as Congress' Luisinho Faleiro, Joaquim Alemao, Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Narvekar were administered oath of office and secrecy by Governor S C Jamir at Raj Bhavan.

Pacheco, who had been demanding that he be given a Cabinet berth, was not administered the oath.

NCP State unit president Wilfred d'Souza said that his party was considering withdrawing support to the Congress-led coalition, if his MLA was not given a berth in the Cabinet.

"The agreement was that all those who had sacrificed their seats to topple the Parrikar Government would be given Ministries, but the Congress is going back on its word," he said.

NCP chief Shard Pawar, however, said in Surat that his party would not pull out of the Government in Goa.

"This is injustice. It is the responsibility of the Pratapsinh Rane Government to induct our MLA and Congress is going against its promise by inducting only its MLAs in the cabinet expansion," Pawar told reporters before the beginning of the second day proceedings of party's national convention in Surat.

"Although we are not happy at what is going on, we will not take any action which would benefit BJP", the Union Agriculture Minister said. "There is bound to be disagreement in coalition politics but one has to look at the larger interests", he said.

Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Ravi Naik, however, said, "There was no agreement as far as Ministries are concerned. Our agreement was that we would give one seat and accordingly we left Benaulim for the NCP. We supported them in their campaign and helped them to win, so our responsibility ends there. We did not say anything about Ministries."

Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane declined to comment on the NCP's stand but said he would allocate portfolios to his Ministers on Monday (Jun 13, 2005).

When asked when the two vacant berths would be filled, Naik said, "One place has been left for independent MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues, who has been disqualified, but his appeal is pending the high court. As for the other one, I don't know for whom it has been left, we will have to consult an astrologer."