The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has managed to contain dissent in most areas in the run-up to the Goa assembly polls scheduled for February 14, but four seats, including the prestigious Panaji constituency, continue to be a cause for worry.
While two ministers, one each from Congress and NCP, have locked horns on developmental issues, influential United Goans Democratic Party legislator Atanasio Monserratte is lobbying hard for a ministerial berth. In addition, Congress legislator Pandurang Madkaikar, who was sacked from the Cabinet, has approached Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking reinstatement.
"I was not happy in Congress. The Congress state leadership has failed completely," Madkaikar said.
Naik is apparently upset as his son Siddhesh was hopeful for a ticket from Cumbharjua constituency which was represented by Madkaikar before joining the BJP.
The chief minister has been in the US for treatment of a pancreatic ailment since March this year.
Besides 11 members from BJP, three each from the Goa Forward Party, the MGP and independents supported Sawant during the head count conducted in the House.
The development comes at a time when Parrikar, 62, is undergoing treatment for a pancreatic ailment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
"By next week, the government will work out the exact arrangement through which the work burden on Parrikar could be reduced," he said.
If pandemic (mis)management threatened to dominate Goa's electoral discourse, the BJP is up against a deeper structural issue in its organisation, created by the fact that a majority of the legislature party and the ministerial council is made up of Congress defectors, disparagingly referred to by the Opposition as "imports". Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Parrikar returned to Goa as the chief minister for the fourth time, though he could not complete full terms in his earlier stints.
'BJP central observers have come to Goa and are scheming to merge smaller parties within their party to run the government.'
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