Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar flown to Delhi for treatment at AIIMS

Mangalore Today News Network

Goa, Sept 15, 2018 : Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is being flown to Delhi for treatment at the premier AIIMS hospital in the national capital, amid continued worry over his health.

 

Parrikar, who returned from the US after a medical check-up on September 7, was admitted to a private hospital in 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 decision to fly Parrikar to in an air ambulance to AIIMS was taken soon after.

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.

With Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s health refusing to improve BJP leaders in the State went into a huddle with Minister for Public Works and head of regional alliance partner Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) Sudin Dhavalikar tipped to be given interim charge of the Chief Minister’s portfolios.

Dhavalikar who was appointed leader of the Goa Legislative Assembly during Parrikar’s earlier visit to the hospital, while speaking on Friday as talk of leadership change was premature.

A final decision is likely to be taken after a BJP 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.

BJP party sources have revealed that central observers are being sent to the state to take stock of the political situation in view of Parrikar’s illness.

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 is battling pancreatic cancer but officially the Chief Minister’s office has consistently played down the seriousness of his ailment.

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.

courtesy:HT