PANAJI
A reshuffle of the nearly six months old Pramod Sawant-led Cabinet is imminent in the next day or two, the on-the-record denials notwithstanding. At least two of the eight Congress MLAs who were admitted into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) twelve days ago are expected to be inducted into the team.
Top BJP sources all but confirmed that Sawant will rejig his team "soon", a development which was expected after the September 14 developments when eight of the 11 Opposition Congress legislators, including then Opposition Leader Michael Lobo, jumped aisles.
A Cabinet reshuffle to induct defectors has been the norm rather than the exception in almost all instances of legislators switching over to the ruling side Goa has witnessed over the last three decades.
Another reason why talk in political circles about the imminent Cabinet expansion gains credence is the culmination on Sunday of the 16-day lunar period of the Hindu calendar 'Pitru Paksha', considered inauspicious.
Former chief minister Digambar Kamat and Nuvem MLA Aleixo Sequeira are the two names Sawant has finalised to be inducted into his team, according to one BJP official in the decision-making loop.
Another senior BJP functionary preferred to neither confirm nor deny if it will be Kamat and Sequeira who will be made ministers. He also declined to say which two ministers from the current Cabinet are expected to be dropped.
Kamat himself denied any knowledge of the imminent Cabinet reshuffle although he is almost certain to make a comeback more than 10 years after he relinquished power at the end of Goa's only full five-year tenure as Chief Minister in 2012.
"I am not aware of it," Kamat said when contacted on Sunday. He also declined to discuss the issue any further.
He is on record to say his joining the BJP was "unconditional" and he would accept anything that he will be entrusted by the party.
Separately on Sunday, Sawant ignored questions from journalists on the possibility and timing of the expected cabinet reshuffle.
Sawant abruptly cut short the interaction with the media at the BJP headquarters in Panaji and walked away from the cameras smiling, when the query was posed to him.
BJP hardliners within the local unit, meanwhile, are pressuring Sawant to ensure that, whatever he does, the Cabinet's Hindu-Catholic community balance should not be altered from the current level.
Three of the twelve members of the Cabinet are Catholics -- Mauvin Godinho, Nilesh Cabral and Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate -- and one of them may face the axe with Sawant inclined to avoid antagonising this core group of hardliners in the party.
Political observers, meanwhile, will be keenly watching if Sawant's moves will have any impact on the equation between him and his number two, Vishwajit Rane.
Sawant's stiff competitor for the leadership before he finally got the High Command's nod for a second inning post the Assembly elections, Rane has more than demonstrated his appetite for the game of one-upmanship with his boss.
