The Hindu : National : Split among Goa rebels defused crisis

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National

Split among Goa rebels defused crisis

Prakash Kamat

PANAJI: Following a vertical split in the nine-member rebel group in the wee hours of Saturday, the three-day-old rebellion spearheaded by the legislative wing of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), one of the major allies of the seven-month-old Congress-led coalition government, fizzled out.

A prominent rebel leader, Atanasio Monserrate, an unattached member of the UGDP, admitted while talking to presspersons on Saturday evening that the rebellion fizzled out without tangible gains on account of a split in the group.

The Congress-led government, which had 23 members — Congress (16), NCP (3), SGF (2), Independent (1) and Unattached (UGDP) 1 — found itself in minority as a fallout of the crisis. However, the beleaguered government received support from Independent MLA from Sanvordem and mine-owner Anil Salgaonkar on Friday.

With the support of two MGP MLAs, the coalition government’s support rose to 26. A visibly upset Mr. Monserrate accused Vishwajit Rane, son of Speaker Pratapsingh Rane, of engineering a split in the group by flying to New Delhi early on Saturday along with two MLAs of the Maharahstrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) “to be in the good books of the Congress High Command.”

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