Chief Minister Pramod Sawant kept all aspirants for ministerial berths on tenterhooks till the last minute and finally took eight in the cabinet in the first round. The Chief Minister and the BJP demonstrated that the new government is under no pressure from the non-BJP MLAs extending the support to the government. Speculations were rife that the berth for Sudin Dhavlikar of MGP was insured and so also for the two independent MLAs, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco and Dr Chandrakant Shetye. The Chief Minister and the party think tank made it all a BJP cabinet with the required balances.
Full marks to the Chief Minister for striking the golden mean. This initial cabinet formation shows that the BJP is in full control of its numbers including those of the allies supporting the government. This is an outcome of calm, cool and at the same time assertive political management. The message that goes is that there is no panic. The perception created is that the BJP can run the show by maintaining unutilised excess capacity.
Three ministerial berths are put on wait. This is a bait for insiders and outsiders. The guessing game on Goa Forward Party and its lone MLA Vijai Sardesai would gather more noise. The BJP is communicating to the Goa Forward that they have the power to wait and give comfortable time for the much hyped “goemkarponn” to merge with the saffron outfit.
Pramod Sawant will definitely receive credit points from the general public for keeping off Sudin Dhavlikar from ministerial berth. This senior politician had the bloated ego that no government can be formed otherwise. The insider opposition to Sudin Dhavlikar has been placated with ministerial berths to the three MLAs from Ponda taluka. The initial visible message is that Sudin Dhavlikar is not viewed as a political power beyond Madkai, though the backdoor hidden assurances could be different. BJP is even capable of communicating a stronger message by providing a ministerial berth to the MGP MLA from Mandrem. It is definitely a better political bet considering the age and energy of Jit Arolkar.
Probably, the Chief Minister would gauge the situation by first distributing the rewards of government corporations to the BJP MLAs and later take a call on the expansion of the cabinet.
On the whole, the swearing ceremony finally turned out to be the first big bugle of the BJP almost commencing its campaign for the 2024 parliamentary elections. It was a successful attempt to project BJP on the front foot and much ahead in the 2024 race to Parliament. Narendra Modi’s BJP is known to always stay in election mode and has accordingly planned the presence of the Prime Minister, Home Minister and the BJP CMs at the big-ticket event. Though the tiny state of Goa does not matter in numbers being eligible for only two Lok Sabha seats, the eyeballs that Goa generates and perceptions it manufactures nationally and internationally due to its uniqueness is pretty disproportionate to its numerical weakness.
Another point which should not be missed about the swearing ceremony is the fact that the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court deferred its sitting to 1 pm from its regular scheduled time of 10 am. The Chief Justice of Bombay High Court chose to be on the Goa Bench this week and made it a point to attend the swearing ceremony along with two brother judges. Such official manoeuvring by judicial officers is not uncommon in recent times. Should we call this judicial “aspirationalism” taking the space of judicial activism?
