Day after MGP split, Ajgaonkar made Goa deputy CM
Panaji: A day after Goa Tourism minister Manohar Ajgaonkar broke away from the MGP and joined the BJP, he was Thursday designated as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.
Ajgaonkar is now the second deputy chief minister along with Goa Forward Party (GFP) leader and state minister Vijai Sardesai.
State Joint Secretary (General Administration) Varsha Naik issued an order designating Ajgaonkar as the Deputy Chief Minister.
"The government is pleased to designate Vijai Sardesai, minister and Manohar Ajgaonkar, minister as the Deputy Chief Minister with immediate effect," it said.
Early on Wednesday, Ajgaonkar and another Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) MLA Dipak Pawaskar had merged their party's legislative wing with the BJP.
They had given a letter to merge the MGP legislature party with the BJP to officiating Goa Assembly Speaker Michael Lobo at 1.45 am on Wednesday. However, Sudin Dhavalikar, the third MGP MLA, did not sign the letter.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant Wednesday dropped Dhavalikar, who was earlier appointed as the deputy chief minister, from the state cabinet and inducted another BJP MLA Dipak Pawaskar in a late-night ceremony.
Sawant had claimed that he had to drop Dhavalikar from the cabinet as he "failed" to adhere to the common minimum programme of the coalition government.
Ajgaonkar currently holds sports and tourism portfolios.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
