Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has just passed his first test winning the trust vote by a clear majority. However, the biggest challenge would be to win a vote of confidence from within the BJP and its allies. This hasn’t been a happy beginning for the coalition partners who were at odds over choice of Sawant as CM and even faced hiccups while legislators queued up at Raj Bhavan to take oath. With the first hurdle successfully crossed, Sawant will have to focus on the inherent problems within.
On top of the list would be sorting out the MGP tangle. With Deepak Dhavalikar firm on contesting the Shiroda bypoll and Deepak Pauaskar singing a unity tune, BJP’s plan of ‘fixing’ MGP at the bypoll has still not fallen in place.
Disgruntled Calangute MLA Michael Lobo has refused the Speaker’s post and continues to remain disappointed over not being accommodated in the Sawant ministry, having earlier fallen out of the Parrikar team despite being a key negotiator. A despondent Lobo was seen making a hurried exit from Raj Bhavan the moment he realized that his name was not in the list of ministers.
Back home, the allies despite being rewarded with one deputy chief minister’s post each have not shown the team spirit that was visible during the Parrikar regime. Sudin Dhavalikar is being pushed to the wall with the BJP virtually holding a gun to his head. The other deputy chief minister Vijai Sardesai appears not content too and has distanced himself from the current BJP regime. Vijai who was busy engineering Plans B and C for the survival of Parrikar-led coalition government, has now washed his hands off making it amply clear that it is an internal issue of the BJP and MGP.
The MGP and Goa Forward are left sulking because the BJP high command virtually bulldozed through the leadership crisis with a ‘take it or leave it’ approach. The choices of allies fell on deaf ears and the option offered to them was to choose between Sawant and dissolution.
Interestingly, while the BJP is fighting the MGP to clear its by-poll road, Goa Forward has threatened to put a spoke in their wheel in Panaji. What is baffling is that it comes at a time when Vijai is talking about coalition dharma and pointing accusing fingers at MGP. With Goa Forward’s Babush Monserrate announcing his ambition of contesting in the capital city, one wonders over Vijai’s mantra of dharma and karma? Does it not apply here?
Politics sometimes defies logic and politicos are known to be making fake promises. Lest we forget, the allies extended support to the BJP, post their 2017 election win, on the pre-condition that Parrikar leads. The narrative has changed now and so has the vision of power-hungry politicos. Stability of the government is the new catchword.
