PANAJI
There can never be a lull or a dull spell in politics and since the last several weeks Goa's political urn is seemingly witnessing a churn with politicos repositioning their stances and position on the chessboard.
This latest round of churning kicked off with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant sacking Govind Gaude from his cabinet weeks after he had publicly criticised the functioning including leveling grave allegations of corruption in the Tribal Welfare Department, held by the Chief Minister himself.
The development caused some ripples with the sacked minister flexing his political muscle with a massive rally in his home constituency of Priol. This was then closely followed by a seemingly government-inspired crackdown on the managing committee of the tribal association UTAA which was led by Gaude confidante and former minister Prakash Velip.
More recently, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gathered all its Ministers and MLAs including allies, ostensibly for a strategy meeting related to the upcoming monsoon session of the Assembly.
Sawant and the BJP State President Damodar 'Damu' Naik both said that all the alliance partners, except MGP, attended the meeting during which a review of the Bills and Resolutions expected in the session was done.
But what stirred a controversy was the presence of Speaker Ramesh Tawardkar, slammed by the Opposition politicians as impropriety and a symptom of his tilt towards the treasury benches in his conduct of the legislature's proceedings.
Tawardkar sought to explain the episode by arguing that he had only gone for the 'dinner' and had not attended the meeting as such. Nonetheless, he was slammed by the Congress State president Amit Patkar and Goa Forward Party's legislator Vijai Sardesai.
On the other side of the isle, politics has also been in a churn within the ranks of the Opposition.
A meeting called to strategise for the monsoon session by Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao exposed the chinks in the 'United Opposition'. While his two Congress colleagues -- Altone D'Costa and Carlos Alvares Ferreira -- did attend, the only other non-Congress legislators who came were the Aam Aadmi Party's Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva.
Sardesai and the RGP's Viresh Borkar stayed away, signalling that all is not well in the Opposition which had been displaying exceptional unity since the 2024 parliamentary elections earned them a formidable victory in South Goa.
The AAP which nationally severed ties with the INDIA bloc on Friday explained the presence of Viegas and Silva at the meeting to demand accountability from the BJP government on the floor of the House.
Both Viegas and Silva issued a joint statement which said they stand united in the Opposition for justice to Goa and meaningful change in the Assembly.
Sardesai meanwhile publicly dismissed the Opposition strategy meeting as a “mere formality,” questioning its timing and purpose.
“This is nothing more than a last-minute ritual,” Sardesai had told the media while opining that such meetings must be called as soon as the session is notified. He eventually skipped the meeting.
The latest in the Goa's political churn is the development where internal turmoil in the Congress has come to the fore with Patkar accusing Ferreira of alleged party indiscipline over his presence at a BJP event celebrating the birthday of former minister Nilesh Cabral, while skipping a couple of party programmes.
Only time will tell how this internal strife in the Congress will unfold but all these events and developments exemplify a discernable churning in the State's political realms.
