By Marcellus D’Souza

Mar 28: Pramod Sawant is Chief Minister of Goa. He was sworn in today by Governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai along with 8 Cabinet Ministers which includes Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godhino, Ravi Naik, Nilesh Cabral, Subhash Shirodkar, Rohan Khaunte, Govind Gaude and Atanasio Monserrate.

The swearing-in took place in the presence of PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President J P Nadda amongst chief ministers from 7 other BJP ruled states and a host of BJP karyakartas.

There is still no word on the inclusion of Sudein Dhavlikar of the MGP, who has extended his support to the incumbent government or the three Independent MLAs, who have supported the government. Their support in hoisting up the Pramod Sawant government cannot be taken for granted and can best be described as ‘crucial’.
So how did Pramod Sawant survive this crisis? Enough pressure was mounted on this Ayurveda Medical practitioner to accommodate all the dissents. Through this act, Pramod Sawant has silenced some of his most vocal critics.

Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godhino and Ravi Naik have pushed this decision in their favour. Amit Shah has walked a very fine line while arriving at this decision. Vishwajit Rane has been a staunch critic of Pramod Sawant and will find every opportunity to under mind his authority. If not awarded with the plump post of Deputy Chief Minister, he will not hesitate to pull the rug from beneath the feet of Pramod Sawant. Ravi Naik, a former chief minister too who has made his entry into the BJP only recently. It may be recalled that it was Ravi Naik who has first raised the flag of dissent on March 10, the day of the counting. He opposed the support of MGP saying ‘the BJP had already 20 seats on its own and finding the one seat for an absolute majority would not be difficult’. The MGP throughout the campaign had opposed the Pramod Sawant government with statement like “will never support a government led by Pramod Sawant” as uttered by Sudein Dhavlikar.

Pramod Sawant may have brought peace for the moment. But he needs to take the interest of heavyweights like Alexio Reginado Lourence of Curtorim into account. The case of Reginado Lourence is unique to Goa and India because he was termed as a ‘dissident’ by the Congress Party because he left the Congress and joined the West Bengal-based TMC but soon thereafter resigned from the TMC because of pressure mounted by his electorate. When he tried to return to the Congress, but the Congress closed all doors on him and refused his re-entry. He won from Curtorim assembly seat by as an independent candidate. His joining the Pramod Sawant government was taken to show the Congress how myopic was its view of the situation.

Will the cabinet be expanded soon? A two day session has been called on March 29 and 30. On March 30, the Sawant-led government is likely to seek a trust vote to prove its majority. The Chief Minister will also present the State Budget for the financial year 2022-2023 and seek a Vote on Account for the first four months of the new fiscal year. The Chief Minister will present Supplementary Demands for Grants and its connected Goa Appropriation Bill. Also there will be nomination of Members on Business Advisory Committee (BAC). A cabinet expansion may be held by early April, as nobody likes to sit out in the sun.