THE COMMANDING OFFICER
>> On Sunday, Pramod Sawant led the official entourage which paid homage to Goa's first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar on his 45th death anniversary
>> Two days hence, Sawant is also designated ahead of cabinet ministers, to play the role of the out-of-station Parrikar in hoisting the tricolor at the official Independence Day function
>> These are clear signs that Sawant, although untested as an administrator is being conspicuously promoted by the saffron party
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PANAJI: They may be tentative, but they definitely are signs that the lead partner of Goa's ruling coalition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is looking at Speaker Pramod Sawant as one of the options to quickly fill the leadership void beyond Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
On Sunday, Dr Pramod Sawant led the official entourage which paid homage to Goa's first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar on his 45th death anniversary.
Two days hence, Dr Sawant is also designated ahead of cabinet ministers, to play the role of the out-of-station Parrikar in hoisting the tricolor at the official Independence Day function.
These are clear signs that Sawant, although untested as an administrator is being conspicuously promoted by the saffron party, which minus Parrikar stares at a pronounced crisis of leadership, the kind witnessed in the February-June period while he was away in the United States for treatment.
For the present Parrikar may have dispelled the perceived vacuum with his spirited performance in the recently concluded Monsoon session of the legislative assembly but BJP sources said, the party is resigned to the inevitable - that it needs to move on.
The first signs that the saffron party is looking to ready itself for its role beyond Parrikar came when the man himself candidly admitted, in an interaction with local newspaper and news channel editors, of a leadership crisis in Goa. Soon after his return from the United States, Parrikar had in the conversation with the editors spoken of the need to seriously promote the second line of leadership.
A telling comment coming as it did from the man who is known to brook no competition as far as leadership in Goa's political arena is concerned. Be it from within his BJP or outside, the IITian has aggressively crushed or machiavellianly elbowed out opponents and competitors through his over two-decade long domineering presence on Goa's political map.
This view on leadership or lack of it was endorsed by Union Minister for Ayush, Shripad Naik, the only leader of the Goa BJP who matches Parrikar in stature if not performance.
"We definitely have the second line of leadership. But it needs to be actively promoted," Naik had said a day after Parrikar's comment to the Goa editors got reported.In Goa's current political arithmetic though, the BJP hardly finds itself in a position of comfort and will have to factor in its alliance partners should it wish to shape up a post-Parrikar scenario. The 3-legislators-strong Goa Forward Party leader Vijai Sardesai is rigid on the condition of his party's partaking in the government -- that Parrikar be its leader. "The condition is non-negotiable," Sardesai who is number three in the Parrikar cabinet has often said on record. The three-member Sudin Dhavlikar-led MGP too could be antogonistic towards any attempt to tinker with the status-quo.
Nevertheless, with Parrikar and Shripad in synch on the question of passing on the baton of the saffron party's leadership in Goa, only time will tell if the conspicuous promotion of Dr Sawant is what it seems -- filling the leader's shoes if and when the incumbent Parrikar hangs his.
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Cong opposes Sawant
hoisting flag on I-Day
PANAJI: The Opposition Congress has pulled its punches and officially conveyed to the Governor its opposition to Speaker Pramod Sawant hoisting the national flag on Independence Day. Goa Pradesh Congress President Girish Chodankar has written to the Governor Mridula Sinha voicing the party's opposition to the "breach in protocol".
Chodankar's act however is a politically loaded salvo aimed at unsettling the ruling coalition over the BJP's promotion of a relative outsider to shoulder Parrikar's responsibility in his absence.
