PANAJI
Reports of an expected reshuffle of his cabinet by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant dominated the news space off and on throughout the current year with discussion in the corridors of power revolving around the induction of Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar as a minister together with a couple of others, foremost among them being the heavyweight Margao legislator and former chief minister Digambar Kamat.
But with just a couple of days to go for the year to end, this promised rejig of his team is almost certainly unlikely to happen and those waiting in the wings may have to first ring in 2025 to realise their dreams.
To induct ministers in his team, Sawant has to create vacancies by dropping incumbents as the constitutional scheme permits a maximum of 12 ministers (inclusive of the chief minister) for small States like Goa. Many observers say it is this reason why the exercise has been delayed.
Since returning to the hot seat after the assembly elections in March 2022, Sawant has made just one change in his cabinet -- dropping Nilesh Cabral and inducting one of the eight Congress defectors Aleixo Sequeira -- in November last year.
Since then, media speculation of another cabinet reshuffle to induct one more of the Congress defectors has constantly played out.
Sawant meanwhile has himself confirmed in a recent interview that a cabinet reshuffle will eventually happen but has not specified when. But more than the rejig of his team of interest in Goa's political setup has been the constant behind-the-scene and underlying battle of sorts he's been having with his number two and TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane.
Rane's recent visit to the national capital where he had a tete-a-tete with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ostensibly to discuss political matters of the State did trigger more speculation of political change.
The visit came months after both Sawant and Rane had been summoned by the Delhi leadership to iron out the misgivings and undo the damage to the government's and party's image caused by the internal strife.
Over to 2025 now, when all questions related to the power-play in Goa, a cabinet reshuffle and the Sawant-Rane shadow-boxing duel will perhaps be answered.
