the goan I network
PANAJI
Boosted by Thursday’s results in the Assembly bypolls in which his Bharatiya Janata Party made significant gains, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday taunted former Deputy Chief Minister Sudin Dhavalikar saying it is now up to the MGP leader to decide whether to continue his support to his government or not.
“My government is touching the comfortable figure of 23 MLAs. On paper, Sudin Dhavalikar’s support to the government is still there. It is now up to him to decide whether to continue support to the government or not,” Sawant said addressing his first press conference after Thursday’s results.
Of the four seats, the BJP won three but lost the prestigious Panaji seat, which the party held since 1994, largely represented by its iconic leader late Manohar Parrikar. It thus buttressed the numbers of Sawant’s coalition government from 14 to 17, even as it continued to enjoy support of three Independents and another three MLAs of Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai’s Goa Forward Party.
Sawant also said that the Independents and Sardesai have congratulated him for the bypoll victories and assured that they are firmly with the government.
The MGP has been at loggerheads with the BJP, since late March, when two of its three MLAs - Deputy Chief Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar and PWD Minister Deepak Prabhu Pauskar - split and ‘merged’ with the saffron partner. The development left Dhavalikar as the MGP sole MLA with a thoroughly diminished net worth in the power equation.
None-the-less, Dhavalikar hit back at the BJP in the electoral landscape and is credited with helping the Congress’ Francisco Sardinha defeat the BJP’s incumbent South Goa MP, Narendra Sawaikar.
In his Marcaim assembly segment, Sawaikar garnered a slender 1,200-odd lead which in effect was a loss of nearly 10,000 votes when compared to the 11,000-odd votes margin he had secured in his 2014 victory. Sardinha’s margin of victory on Thursday was a slender 9,755 votes.
Sawant, however, did not see it in that light and claimed that despite Dhavalikar having worked against the party in the Lok Sabha elections, it did not make much impact and in fact the BJP got a lead of 1,000 votes in the assembly segment.
Sawant claimed Sawaikar’s loss in South Goa was because the party got fewer than expected votes in Savordem, Curchorem, Margao, Quepem and Mormugao segments of the South Goa parliamentary constituency.
On the loss in Panaji, Sawant said it has “pained him” but stopped short of making any further comments or identifying the reasons.
To a question on what role the party will assign to Utpal Parrikar, who had been denied the ticket in Panaji at the eleventh hour, the party’s State president Vinay Tendulkar only said, that a decision will be taken on that issue.
Meanwhile, Sawant said it is unlikely he will make any changes in his cabinet any time soon. The decision on tweaking the composition of his cabinet, if at all, will take some time, he added.
Sawant also said the decision on electing the Speaker, a post he vacated to take over as chief minister after the death of his predecessor Manohar Parrikar, will be taken ahead of the monsoon session which he said will have to be held in July.
Sawant meanwhile thanked his alliance partner GFP, Independent MLAs and his cabinet colleagues Govind Gaude and Rohan Khaunte, besides Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar for working for the BJP’s victory in the Assembly bypolls and the Lok Sabha elections. Pending claims of the Griha Aadhar scheme will be settled soon, he said, adding that he will personally call for the file and clear pending applications while also making available new forms.
“Specially Govind Gaude has done exceptional work and we got a big lead in his Priol constituency”, Sawant said.
Sawant also said he will now concentrate on delivering on the implementation of existing social welfare schemes which had suffered due to the Model Code of Conduct.
He and some other BJP leaders from the State will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi, he added.
