Manohar Parrikar

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Manohar Parrikar bigraphy, stories - Ministers

Manohar Parrikar : biography

13 December 1955 –

Manohar Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar (born 13 December 1955) is an Indian politician who has been Chief Minister of Goa since 9 March 2012. Previously he served as Chief Minister from 2000 to 2005.

Awards

  • 2012: CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in politics category

Early life

Parrikar was born at Mapusa, Goa in a Goud Saraswat Brahmin family. He studied at Loyola High School, Margao. He completed his secondary education in Marathi and went on to graduate in metallurgical engineering from IIT Bombay in 1978. He is the first IIT graduate to become the Chief Minister of any Indian state. He was awarded by IIT Bombay with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2001. Manohar Parrikar and Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the new Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) have graduated together from IIT Bombay in the year 1978.

Political career

He is a member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is the first Chief Minister of Goa from his party. He was first elected to the Second Legislative Assembly of the State of Goa in 1994. He was the leader of the opposition from June to November 1999. He became the Chief Minister of Goa for the first time on 24 October 2000, but his tenure lasted only till 27 February 2002. On 5 June 2002, he was re-elected and became the Chief Minister again.

On 29 January 2005, his government was reduced to a minority in the assembly after four BJP MLAs resigned from the House. However, Parrikar proved his majority in the house by February 2005. In 2007, the Parrikar-led BJP was defeated in the Goa state elections by the Indian National Congress led by Digambar Kamat. His party became victorious once again after the BJP and allies won 24 seats against INC’s 9 seats in the Goa Assembly Elections held in March 2012.

Government

CM Parrikar proposed a total reduction of 11% in VAT (Value Added Tax) on petrol when he announced the state budget,immediately after his party came into power. Goa government reduced petrol price by Rs.11 per litre.The price of petrol in Goa becomes the cheapest in the country at Rs. 55 per litre.