The timeline of Manohar Parrikar's life

December 13, 1955 | Born to Parra native, Gaud Saraswat Brahmin middle-class couple Gopalkrishna and Radhabai of Mapusa in North Goa

RSS prant pracharak D Nadkarni is a major influence on young Parrikar, who is made ‘mukhya shikshak’ while preparing for IIT

1973 | Joins IIT Bombay, RSS gives him charge of the Powai hostel unit of the Sangh


1978 | Graduates as BTech in metallurgical engineering, resumes work for RSS in Mapusa where he also sets up a business

June 2, 1979 | Manohar Parrikar marries Medha Kotnis in Mumbai

They have two sons—Utpal and Abhijat

1981 | Becomes RSS Mapusa unit sanghchalak

Parrikar on his RSS background: Learnt “discipline, progressiveness, gender equality, equality of all before the law, nationalism and social responsibility from the RSS”

1988 | Sangh deputes him to BJP to make the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party irrelevant

June 1991 | Makes electoral debut, contests Lok Sabha polls from North Goa constituency, loses to Congress candidate Harish Zantye

November 1994 | Wins Panaji seat, BJP debuts in Goa assembly with four members

Considered No. 13, his birth date, lucky. His vehicle number, while he was in office, was 1313

2000 | Just months before Parrikar is to take up the CM’s post, he loses his wife to cancer

October 24, 2000 | Becomes the first IITian CM

2001 | Awarded Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT Bombay, announces cyberage scheme, where for the first time in the country, free computers are provided to higher secondary school students

February 27, 2002 | Dissolves state assembly

June 5, 2002 | Re-elected CM for second time

2004 | Gets Iffi to Goa, raises infra in record time

March 2, 2005 | His government is reduced to a minority after four BJP legislators resign

Even as CM, Parrikar lived in his ancestral house at Mapusa, 13km from Panaji

September 2009 | Parrikar in an infamous interview compares BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani to “a rancid and ageing pickle whose political innings was more or less over”

March 2012 | Elected CM after BJP gets 21 seats in 40-member House, announces popular schemes like Griha Aadhar and Laadli Laxmi

September 2012 | Suspends mining operations after Shah Commission report alleges multi-crore scam

January 2013 | Becomes first BJP CM to openly endorse Narendra Modi’s candidature for PM. Also hosts BJP national executive in Panaji, where Modi is announced as campaign committee chief and in effect the PM candidate

November 2014 | Handpicked by PM Modi as defence minister, moves to New Delhi

November 2014 | Elected to Rajya Sabha from UP

September 26, 2016 | Carries out surgical strikes across LoC after Pakistani terrorists killed 19 soldiers at Uri on September 18, 2016

March 2017 | Resigns as defence minister, sworn in as Goa CM for fourth time

February 2018 | Diagnosed with a pancreatic ailment

March 17, 2019 | Passes away