Francis D'Souza (politician)


Francisco Casimiro Jerónimo Agnelo Pinto de Souza or Francis Dsouza was an Indian Politician from Bharatiya Janata Party who served as the Deputy Chief Minister of the Indian State of Goa. He contested from Mapusa as an independent unsuccessfully in 1989.

Biography

D'Souza was first elected to the Goa Legislative Assembly in 1999 as the Goa Rajiv Congress Party's candidate and later in 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017 as the BJP candidate from the Mapusa constituency. He was appointed Deputy Chief Minister when BJP formed a government in 2012 under Manohar Parrikar's leadership and remained Deputy Chief Minister when Laxmikant Parsekar became the Chief Minister. He was also front-runner to succeed Manohar Parrikar as the chief minister.
In July 2014, he landed into a controversy after publicly declaring that India is a Hindu nation and he was a Christian-Hindu.
D'Souza died on 14 February 2019 at the age of 64 following a battle with cancer.

Positions held