The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to an urgent hearing of a petition filed by the Congress, challenging the appointment of Manohar Parrikar as Goa chief minister. The Congress has claimed that since it is the single largest party in Goa, it should be invited first to form the government, ANI reported.

Although the Congress had won 17 out of the 40 seats in the Goa Assembly election on Saturday, the BJP, which bagged 13 seats, garnered the support of three Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLAs, three Goa Forward Party MLAs and two Independent legislators. Parrikar has the support of 21 MLAs in the 40-member Assembly, and is scheduled to take oath on Tuesday evening. Parrikar has to prove his majority in a floor test within 15 days of assuming office. He has resigned as the defence minister, a position he has held since November 2014.

Earlier, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh had “apologised” to the people of Goa for failing to “muster the support to form government”. “Money power has won over people’s power,” he had said.

After news of Parrikar’s return to Goa broke, Singh expressed his sympathies for the minister, seemingly for his apparent demotion from the defence portfolio, but gave him “credit for his never-say-die spirit”. Singh had also pointed out that seven of the BJP’s 13 MLAs are Roman Catholic. He told Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Twitter that his outlook would now need to be “pro-Christian”.

The Congress has also raised similar points against the Bharatiya Janata Party forming government in Manipur, where the former got 28 seats and the saffron party bagged 21 seats in the 60-seat Assembly. The Congress is scheduled to raise the two issues in Parliament on Tuesday, according to ANI.