Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has left Goa for Delhi Saturday morning for treatment at the premier AIIMS hospital in the national capital, amid continued worry over his health.
Parrikar was flown to Delhi in an air ambulance on Monday morning around 8 am.
The chief minister, who returned from the US after a medical check-up on September 7, was admitted to a private hospital at North Goa’s Candolim on Thursday evening. He had earlier this year been treated for three months in the US for a pancreatic ailment.
The chief minister spoke to BJP president Amit Shah on Friday evening to update him about him about his health. The chief minister has not resumed office ever since he returned to Goa on September 6 after his third visit to the USA and had to be almost immediately re-hospitalized at a private hospital in Candolim village 10 kilometres from here.
BJP lawmaker Michael Lobo called on the chief minister before he was flown to Delhi.
“His health condition is not good and he is not in a position to continue working like he used to earlier. His has given the go-ahead to redistribute his portfolios among other ministers. We have to hope for the best,” Lobo told Hindustan Times.
BJP leaders said Sudin Dhavalikar, the public works minister and alliance partner Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) was expected to be given interim charge of the ministries handled by Parrikar.
Dhavalikar, who was appointed leader of the Goa Legislative Assembly during Parrikar’s earlier visit to the hospital, told reporters on Friday that any talk of leadership change at this stage was premature.
A decision on temporary allocation of the chief minister’s portfolios is likely to be taken after a team of BJP’s central observer visits the state either on Saturday or Sunday.
BJP leaders went into a huddle late on Friday night at the hospital where Parrikar was hospitalised, on a day when the chief minister briefly left the hospital to visit his ancestral home in Goa’s Parra village for the Ganesh Chaturthi before he returned to the hospital. The former Defence Minister is not known to ever miss a visit to his ancestral home for the festival. However this year Parrikar made it only on the second day.
The State government has not issued any official statement on the health of the chief minister.
Leadership is a sensitive issue with the presence of Parrikar being the only common factor holding the BJP alliance together.
On Friday a host of ministers and party leaders called on the Chief Minister at the hospital.
During his earlier period of absence, the Chief Minister had put in place a three-member cabinet advisory committee while he continued to personally monitor and clear files from the US.
Parrikar had left for the USA for his second follow up visit on August 10 and was initially expected to be away only for a period of one week. He returned on August 20 but was flown to Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital the next day. While he was initially expected to return to the state on August 25 his return was delayed till August 29. He left again for the US on August 30
The Chief Minister was first hospitalised on February 14 for what was reported to be a case of food poisoning. However, no sooner he was shifted to Mumbai, the state administration informed that the Chief Minister would be “unavailable for next two days as he has to undergo a routine health check-up in Mumbai.”
On February 16, the State Administration informed that the Chief Minister “is well and under observation. He is likely to be discharged in a day or two. It is a case of mild pancreatitis.”
The next day, however, it was reported that the Chief Minister was “under monitoring for his inflamed pancreas” with the assumption that his treatment would be longer than initially anticipated and the Goa Legislative Assembly’s budget session initially planned for three weeks was curtailed to only four days.
On February 23, he defied odds and presented the state’s financial statement in the Assembly the same day he was discharged from Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital. However, two days later he had to be readmitted to hospital following this time with dehydration.
He travelled to the USA at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York State for treatment on March 5 where he remained for three months and returned on June 14 in time of the Monsoon Session of the Goa Legislative Assembly.
No sooner news leaked that Parrikar was hospitalised, and would in all likelihood be unable to continue, BJP leaders met at Goa’s Mapusa Town 12kms north of here.
First Published: Sep 15, 2018 09:31 IST
Source: HindustanTimes