the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday shared the dais with Utpal Parrikar for the first time since the latter was snubbed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and denied the nomination at the Panaji bypoll necessitated by the death of his father and the party’s iconic leader Manohar Parrikar.
Sawant was the chief guest at the Photo-journalists Association of Goa organised ‘World Photography Day’ event at Sanskruti Bhavan where Utpal was also a special guest.
Sawant, Utpal and Art and Culture minister, Govind Gaude graced the event where they inaugurated an exhibition of photographs which have the late former chief minister and Union Defence Minister in the frame shot by photo-journalists through his eventful political career of two decades
Later, at the valedictory function, Sawant was flanked by Utpal and Gaude on the dais. Utpal was the top contender for the BJP ticket at the May 19 Panaji bypoll, necessitated by the death of his father on March 17 following a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was however denied nomination at the eleventh hour and the party placed its bets on his father’s former aide and ex-MLA Siddharth Kuncalienkar who eventually lost to the Congress-turned-BJP MLA Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate.
Utpal had blamed Sawant and BJP’s Organising Secretary Satish Dhond for his missing the bus. He has also periodically made public statements critical of the party and its government accusing the leadership of abandoning the principles on which his father had steered the party for nearly two decades.
Sawant on the other hand has steered clear from controversy and abstained from any verbal riposte. However, a series of sharp political and administrative moves executed by him since succeeding Parrikar have given rise to a growing impression that he is in a tearing hurry to sideline the former CM’s key loyalists.
Sawant’s swift move to engineer splits and simultaneous mergers into the BJP of legislative wings first of the MGP and then Congress to shed his government’s ‘coalition’ tag with the forced exit of ex-Deputy CMs Sudin Dhavlikar and Vijai Sardesai, fueled the campaign within and outside the saffron party that he was deliberately and strategically wiping out the Parrikar legacy.
Both Dhavlikar and Sardesai are known Parrikar allies and they were unceremoniously sacked from the cabinet by Sawant.
On the administrative front too the CM has shifted senior bureaucrats Parrikar trusted and promoted from key and pivotal postings, adding to the criticism even as he often describes his predecessor as his mentor in politics.
The recent cabinet’s decision to relieve another key Parrikar acolyte Atmaram Nadkarni of all State government’s legal briefs was yet another development that deepened the belief that Sawant is indeed embarked on a mission to erode the influence of the ex-CM’s legacy on the politics of his party and the direction of his government.
Monday’s joint appearance on a public stage of Sawant and Utpal therefore sent many observers in a tizzy and even more reason for analysts to observe more keenly the evolving equation between the two key political personalities of the ruling party.
