PANAJI
The writing on the wall is clear for the 13 BJP MLAs. Don’t rock the coalition boat.
This was made clear to them by national party president Amit Shah who was in the State for a felicitation function.
Stressing that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government has to be stable for an entire term of five years, Shah has advised all its MLAs to be ready for sacrifices.
Shah held a short meeting with all the 13 MLAs and core committee members of the State BJP in Altinho, Panaji after the public felicitation function.
The BJP is caught in a piquant situation. It heads the government, but majority of the cabinet berths are in the hands of coalition partners and independent MLAs. The Goa Forward Party and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party alone share five berths between themselves. The BJP distributed another two cabinet posts to two independent MLAs, leaving the party with three berths.
The eleventh berth is likely to go to Vishwajit Rane who resigned from the Congress to ‘strengthen’ the BJP, which leaves one more post for the BJP.
Speaking to The Goan, highly placed sources present at the meeting informed that Shah has advised all the MLAs to be ready for sacrifices.
“He told us that this is a coalition government, even though the chief minister is of the BJP. He has told us not to do any acts that will create unrest or problems within the government and carry on taking all the alliance partners together”, stated the source.
“Shah also told us that we have to run the government for an entire term of five years and everyone will not get the posts or everyone’s aspirations will not be fulfilled. So he has advised us to be ready for sacrifices, develop personal connect with people and focus on developmental works in respective constituencies”, the source stated further.
It may be recalled that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had given similar advice to all the BJP MLAs while forming the government. He had asked all the BJP legislators to be ready for sacrifices as it would be a coalition government which will be formed along with Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Goa Forward (GF) and two independent MLAs.
The meeting was also attended by Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Suresh Prabhu.
Though Mapusa MLA Francis D’Souza attended the public felicitation function, he wished to skip the meeting with Shah. Vishwajit Rane, who recently joined BJP, too attended the meeting.
