Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar passed away at his private residence here Sunday evening after a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 63.
The condition of Parrikar, diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in February last year and in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, Delhi and New York since then, had turned “extremely critical” Sunday, the Chief Minister’s Office tweeted earlier in the day.
President Ram Nath Kovind expressed his grief. Parrikar was the first Bharatiya Janata Party leader to be Goa Chief Minister. He headed the state from 2000-05 and 2012-14, before joining the Narendra Modi government as Defence Minister from 2014.
The country’s first Indian Institute of Technology alumnus to serve as Chief Minister of a state, he assumed the mantle on four occasions from 2000, but could not complete a single full term in office.
He returned to state politics in 2017 to lead a coalition government headed by the BJP and continued in office despite his protracted illness and amid criticism from the Opposition and civil society, which had demanded his resignation on health grounds.A widower, Parrikar is survived by two sons, their wives and a grandson.
Earlier in the day, BJP legislators discussed options on the possibility of former Chief Minister and Congress MLA Digambar Kamat joining the BJP and taking over the leadership of Goa, suggested Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo.
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