PANAJI, 7 June 2005 — The Congress committee in New Delhi gave its assent to Goa Pradesh Congress Committee to pick Pratap Sinh Rane as the new chief minister of the state. Accordingly, Congress legislators unanimously elected Rane as their leader to head the new government.
Rane will be the chief minister for a record 6 terms, and the swearing in ceremony is scheduled to be held today.
According to Congress sources, the post of the deputy chief minister will go to the Nationalist Congress Party leader Wilfred D’Souza.
The new chief minister will have a tough task to accommodate Congress allies, the NCP, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and four independent legislators in his 12-member Cabinet.
When asked about the priorities of his government, Rane said that the top priority will be to generate employment. For that we have to rope in more industries to the state.
The other thing top on the list is to turn Goa into a special economic zone, which will, in turn, generate employment.
Speaking about the challenges before his government, Rane said the biggest challenge before him is to provide stability.
AICC General Secretary Margaret Alva, who is also in-charge of party affairs of Goa, said “Rane had emerged as a consensus candidate after Congress allies NCP and MGP MLA Sudin Dhavalikar picked Rane as their choice for the top post. They also said that they would not accept any other candidate.
“We have decided that there will be a closed door meeting every month between the MLAs, the chief minister and the PCC Chief to ensure that the party and the government are working in co-ordination,” Alva said, adding that Sonia Gandhi had also given the go-ahead for the setting up of a coordination committee under Alva.
When asked if UGDP President Radharao Gracias would continue to be the convener of the United Legislature Party, she said “it was a different situation that time. UGDP does not have a MLA and is therefore not technically part of the ULP. The issue of convener will be decided later,” Alva said.
