BJP likely to retain Pramod Sawant and Biren Singh as Goa, Manipur CMs

The sitting CMs of Goa and Manipur, Pramod Sawant and Biren Singh are likely to get second terms after the Bharatiya Janata Party was voted back to power in their respective states.

Both Sawant and Singh met prime minister Narendra Modi, as well as party president JP Nadda on Wednesday at the Parliament. BJP leaders said that their names were finalised.

In an indication to the development, PM Modi took to twitter to tweet about his meeting with both the CMs.

“Met @DrPramodPSawant and the team of @BJP4Goa. Our party is grateful to the people of Goa for blessing us yet again with the mandate to serve the state. We will keep working for Goa’s progress in the times to come,” Modi tweeted after meeting Sawant.

“Met Shri @NBirenSingh Ji and congratulated him on @BJP4Manipur’s stupendous victory in the recently concluded Assembly Polls. Our Party is committed to working even harder to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Manipur,” read a similar tweet after Modi met Singh.

Singh, who moved to the BJP from Congress in 2016, led the BJP to victory a second time with 32 seats in the 60-member assembly. Naga People’s Front and National People’s Party have said that their respective five and seven MLAs will ally with the BJP if the saffron party wants. The MLAs were sworn in on Tuesday, and BJP MLA Sorokhaibam Rajen Singh was named the protem speaker.

Sawant took over the mantle of the CM after the passing away of former Goa CM Manohar Parikkar in 2019. The BJP won 20 of the 40 seats in Goa, and the BJP had declared union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and L Murugan as the observers to Goa, to help in the selection of Goa chief minister.

The party, however, is facing an acid test in the hill state of Uttarakhand where the sitting chief minister Pushkar Dhami lost from the Khatima seat. Senior marty leaders including Nadda and party general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh on Wednesday held a long meeting with Dhami and other party leaders from the state including BJP media chief and Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni, party’s Uttarakhand poll incharge Prahlad Joshi and state party president Madan Kaushik. The meeting, sources said, ran into two and a half hours.

The party is yet to take a final call, and party sources said that swearing in of the governments in the four states will take place after Holi.

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