Saturday 10 May 2025

Diggu, Aleixo to be anointed

| JUNE 30, 2023, 12:52 AM IST

There is word, and this time its pretty reliable, that veterans Digambar Kamat and Aleixo Sequeira, will be anointed with the ultimate political elixir -- POWER.

The Kamat-Sequeira duo have been cooling their heels in some sort of a political limbo so far removed from the current Pramod Sawant dispensation’s power play ever since they were part of the 8-member team that crossed over to the saffron camp from the Congress in September last year. 

A third politician, Michael Lobo, also travels in the same boat but his case is a tad different having already earned the immunity from the tirade against him that was launched by TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane over his vast real estate empire.

Other than sporadic media reports of a cabinet reshuffle and their possible induction now and then since last September, both Kamat and Sequeira have had little, if anything, to show in terms of the quid-pro-quo for their move. But now, they seem to have inched closer to bagging a slice for that ultimate elixir politicians are politicians for -- power and its trappings.

Sawant has been told by none other than Union Home Minister Amit Shah to stop dragging his feet on reshuffling his cabinet and execute the plan at the earliest. 

If a senior local BJP leader is to be believed, Shah is worried that if Kamat and Sequeira are not rewarded for their act of switching camps soon, it will make it difficult to execute future defections as potential defectors could stop trusting the saffron party to deliver their side of the deal.

The cabinet reshuffle and the induction of Kamat and Sequeira could in all probability take place before the start of the upcoming monsoon session set to begin on July 18 and most definitely before the first anniversary of last year’s mid-September defection, according to the BJP leader.

The party’s State president, Sadanand Tanavade, is singing a different tune though, pooh-poohing the reports of a cabinet reshuffle. But then, when have any of such political developments taken place with advance notice?

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