PANAJI
Goa's political grapevine was agog with intense speculation of a possible change of guard a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) central leadership held poll strategy related parleys with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, State party president Sadanand Tanawade and general secretary (organisation) Satish Dhond in the national capital.
What fuelled the speculation was a statement by Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia at a press conference in Delhi on Saturday afternoon where he claimed that the BJP has begun the exercise of replacing Sawant in Goa owing to his failure on the governance front including the abysmal handing of the Covid-19 situation.
Sisodia said, the BJP has prepared a 10-point list of the Sawant-led government's failures and is likely to replace him months before the assembly elections due in 2022.
The BJP in Goa, however, was quick to dismiss Sisodia's claim as "rumour" but Sawant who had returned to Goa from Delhi on Saturday morning to attend the event of of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video-conferencing address to Swayampurna Mitras, left the State again in the afternoon on a "personal tour".
Earlier on Saturday, Sawant had told the media that his sudden Delhi visit along with Tanavade and Dhond on Friday was related to the party's election preparations and strategy.
Sawant said that a combined meeting was held in Delhi with Home Minister Amit Shah, State BJP Election In-Charge Devendra Fadnavis, BJP National general secretary B L Santosh, Union Minister Darshana Jardosh who is co-incharge of Goa elections and the Goa desk in-charge CT Ravi.
Sisodia in his press conference on Saturday afternoon had said that the BJP's national leadership had prepared a 10-point dossier of failures of the Sawant government and is likely to replace him to beat the anti-incumbency ahead of the polls.
Sisodia said just before the 2022 elections are announced, the saffron party has decided to continue with its trend of changing the chief minister in Goa also.
"BJP has also prepared a 10-point failure list. Covid-19 mismanagement tops the list as the chief minister failed to do anything even after the state recorded 50 per cent positivity rate," Sisodia said, adding that several panchayats on their own had to impose lockdowns.
Even when the cyclonic storm Tauktae hit, despite prior warning, no disaster management was visible and power remained cut for several days, Sisodia said.
The Delhi deputy chief minister also said that compensation promised to kin of Covid-19 bread-earners has also till date not been paid and funds meant for labour welfare were siphoned via the labour-gate scam.
Sisodia sought to link the trend followed by the BJP of changing its chief ministers in States ruled by it as reasoning for his claim that Sawant will be replaced months before the 2022 polls in Goa.
In the last couple of months, the BJP has changed Chief Ministers in three States -- Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Karnataka -- where elections are scheduled to be held in 2022-23.
