The Congress on Saturday demanded a special session of the Goa Legislative Assembly so that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government proves its majority and “lays down a roadmap” for governance with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar ailing. The Opposition party had earlier claimed that Parrikar’s ill-health had hindered the state’s administrative functioning.

The Congress wished Parrikar “a speedy recovery and a long life”, but said that “sheer greed for power by BJP’s shenanigans has plunged the state into a deep dingy abyss”. “On account of incapacity of the Chief Minister owing to illness, ‘power brokers’ are running amok plundering the state’s resources and holding democracy to ransom,” the party said.

The party sought to know why doctors had not issued health bulletins of Parrikar’s condition, and if he is fine, why he is refusing to meet Opposition leaders. A photo of the chief minister released by the state government showed that Parrikar “needs emergent medical attention, instead of BJP attempting a grandstanding about his health to somehow latch on to power”, the Congress said.

On October 27, the state government confirmed reports that Parrikar has pancreatic cancer. He was first taken to a Goa hospital on February 16 with abdominal pain and food poisoning, and has since spent three months undergoing treatment in New York and a month in New Delhi. He has not made a single public appearance since his return to Goa after he was discharged from Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences on October 14.

The party released photographs of a gaunt Parrikar propped up by cushions sitting on a sofa at his home, surrounded by ministers and government officials on October 31. The photographs were released after the Congress demanded visual proof as evidence that Parrikar is fit to work.

The ruling coalition comprises the BJP, Goa Forward Party and the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party, and also has support from three independent MLAs.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the party will raise the matter during the Winter Session of the Parliament and also request President Ram Nath Kovind’s intervention. “Goa is a classic case of fraud being played on the people of Goa by the governor and the Bharatiya Janata Party at Centre,” Surjewala said. He claimed that the BJP was holding the Constitution “captive” by forming the Cabinet Advisory Committee in Parrikar’s absence.

Earlier, in statements submitted to Governor Mridula Sinha and Kovind, the Congress had claimed it can prove its majority in the 40-seat Assembly.

In September, the Shiv Sena had criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party’s decision to retain an “ailing Manohar Parrikar as chief minister” of Goa despite his illness, and referred to it as “cruel and inhuman politics”. The Shiv Sena, which is an ally of the BJP in Maharashtra, said the ruling party was afraid of losing control over Goa.