Francisco Casimiro Jerónimo Agnelo Pinto de Souza (4 October 1954 – 14 February 2019), better known as Francis D'Souza, was an Indian lawyer, politician, and a member of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

who served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Goa from March 2012 to March 2017. He had first unsuccessfully contested in the

1989 Goa Legislative Assembly election Legislative Assembly elections were held in Goa on 11 November 1989 to elect all 40 members of the Goa Legislative Assembly. Results Results by constituency See also * Goa Legislative Assembly * Elections in Goa References {{Goan ...

from the

Mapusa Assembly constituency Mapusa Assembly constituency is one of the 40 assembly constituencies of Goa, a southern state of India. Mapusa is also one of the 20 constituencies that comes under North Goa Lok Sabha constituency. It is part of North Goa district. Members ...

as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

candidate.

Political career

D'Souza was first elected to the

Goa Legislative Assembly The Goa Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the state of Goa in India. The Assembly meets at the Goa State Legislative Assembly Complex in Porvorim, Bardez. The Eighth Goa Legislative Assembly consists of 40 members. The assem ...

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 Mapusa () is a city in North Goa, India. It is situated 13 km north of the state capital of Panaji. The city is the headquarters of Bardez taluka. It is located on the main highway NH-17, linking Mumbai to Kochi. During Portuguese Indi ...

constituency. He was appointed Deputy Chief Minister when BJP formed a government in 2012 under

Manohar Parrikar Manohar Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar (13 December 1955 – 17 March 2019) was an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party who was the Chief Minister of Goa for three terms. He also served as the Union Minister of Defence ...

's leadership and remained

Deputy Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

when

Laxmikant Parsekar Laxmikant Yashwant Parsekar (born 4 July 1956) is an Indian politician who served as the Chief Minister of Goa, from 2014 to 2017. He was the member of the Goa Legislative Assembly from Mandrem constituency, and he belonged to the Bharatiya J ...

became the Chief Minister. He was also front-runner to succeed

as the chief minister.

Controversy

In July 2014, he landed into a controversy after publicly declaring that

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

is a Hindu nation and he was a ''Christian-Hindu''.

Death

D'Souza died on 14 February 2019 at the age of 64 following a battle with cancer.

Positions held

* 1985 – Elected as the Councillor of Mapusa Municipal Council. * 1986–1988 – President of Mapusa Municipal Council. * 1995 – Elected as the Councillor of Mapusa Municipal Council. * 1998–2000 Chairman of Mapusa Municipal Council. * 1999 – Cabinet Minister of Law, Election and Urban Development * 2000–2002 – Cabinet Minister of Judiciary and Labour & Employment * 2002–2005 – Cabinet Minister of Information Technology, Law & Judiciary, Legislative Affairs and Craftsmen Training. * 2012–2014 – Cabinet Minister of Urban Development, Revenue and Craftsmen Training * 2014–2019 – Deputy Chief Minister, Cabinet Minister of Health, Revenue, Town and Country Planning, Urban Development and Law, Legislative Affairs * 2017–2019 – Cabinet Minister of Urban Development, Law and Judiciary, Legislative Affairs and Provedoria.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Souza, Francis 1954 births 2019 deaths Deputy chief ministers of Goa People from Mapusa Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Goa Goa MLAs 1999–2002 Goa MLAs 2002–2007 Goa MLAs 2007–2012 Goa MLAs 2012–2017 Goa MLAs 2017–2022 Goa Rajiv Congress Party politicians Indian Roman Catholics