PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant dashing off to Rajasthan on a chartered plane with three other MLAs in tow on Friday barely a day after the number two in his Cabinet TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane's sojourn to Delhi where he had a tete-a-tete with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Goa affairs has created at buzz in political circles and the corridors of power.
A CMO official, however, played down the political connotations of Sawant's trip to Rajasthan saying he has gone there to attend a pre-budget meeting at Jaisalmer with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
A meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) council is also scheduled in the desert State, the official added.
The official, however, had no plausible explanation for why three other MLAs -- Krishna Daji Salkar and Premendra Shet of the BJP and ally MGP's Jit Arolkar -- also accompanied the Chief Minister on the chartered plane to Rajasthan.
Sawant is also expected to head to Delhi after his official engagements in Rajasthan, which has further fuelled the political intrigue and discussion related to this outstation trip.
Here in Goa, meanwhile, speculation continues over the expected Cabinet reshuffle which Sawant himself has said will be effected by him. In the interview with the Prudent news channel, the chief minister had also ruled out any leadership change but did not give any timeline for his Cabinet rejig.
In the recent past, several politicians said to be clamouring for a Cabinet berth, including Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar and some other MLAs have also made trips to Delhi and met senior leaders of the BJP there.
Sawant had faced a challenge to his leadership from Rane right from the day the results of the 2022 assembly elections were declared on March 10.
The Sawant-Rane leadership duel even delayed government formation for almost a month.
However, the BJP leadership eventually settled for Sawant to don the leadership role again and placated Rane by allocating him hefty portfolios including TCP, health, forests and women and child department. Over the next two-and-half years, however, the chasm between the two has hardly faded away.
