'This Happens When You Come To Goa To Holiday,' Manohar Parrikar Quips

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is clearly thrilled to be back in his home state. After sailing through a trust vote in the Goa assembly on Thursday afternoon Mr Parrikar told NDTV that while he had no complaints being the country's defence minister, it was "quite problematic health-wise to stay in Delhi."

He also said he had "no friends in Delhi."

Mr Parrikar's smooth win in the trust vote today confirmed that a BJP-led coalition headed by him will rule Goa, which gave no party a majority in election results announced last weekend. The Congress won the most seats, 17, but it was the BJP with only 13 seats that moved fast to secure the support of small regional parties and independent legislators.

In the assembly today 22 legislators voted for Mr Parrikar, 16, all of the Congress, voted against. Mr Parrikar needed 21 votes in the 40-member assembly to prove he has majority support.     

"The Congress never had the numbers....this is what happens when you come to Goa only to holiday, not to work," the Chief Minister said in a swipe at Digvijaya Singh, the Congress' central leader in charge of Goa.

 Digvijaya Singh had till last evening said that the Congress could gather enough support to defeat Mr Parrikar's vote of confidence, but the party seemed to give up this morning as the BJP's new allies publicly reconfirmed their support for the BJP before the trust vote.

 "It was all hype. Possibly because there was a demand that was coming that Digvijaya step down as Congress general secretary," said Mr Parrikar. He refused to comment on senior Congress legislator Vishwajeet Rane, who was absent during the trust vote reducing the opposition to Mr Parrikar by one. Rane has been vocal in his criticism of Digvijaya Singh's handling of Goa post the election results.

 Manohar Parrikar had resigned earlier this week as the country's Defence Minister to head back to his tiny home state, where regional parties like Goa Forward and the MGP said their support for a BJP-led government hinged on his being chief minister.

"The Prime MInister felt my need was in Goa so I came here," said Mr Parrikar who was Goa chief minister when he was called to Delhi to be a union minister in Prime Miister Narendra Modi's cabinet in 2014.

His new cabinet has six ministers from his alliance partners and only three, including the chief minister, from the BJP.

 Portfolios, Mr Parrikar said would be announced on Friday.