The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) turned the swearing-in ceremony of Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant into a political show of strength, with chief ministers of other BJP-ruled states in attendance aside from its central ministers and party leadership.
Sawant, who retained the post he held since 2019, took the oath of office and secrecy along with eight other ministers at an indoor stadium outside state capital Panjim on Monday, March 28, a full 18 days after results were declared on March 10 and last of the recent states that went to polls.
However, the trappings of a grand show of strength notwithstanding, the reality is that the BJP government of Pramod Sawant 2.0 is more an old Congress government than a BJP one. Of the nine ministers sworn in, just two, Pramod Sawant himself and Nilesh Cabral, hail from the original BJP unit. The remaining ministers - Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godinho, Ravi Naik, Subhash Shiordkar, Atanasio Monserrate and Govind Gaude are all former Congressmen. Newly sworn-in minister Rohan Khaunte was an independent who the Congress had supported in 2017.
Three vacancies to complete the cabinet, which constitutionally has an outer limit of 12 berths, will take place in the second phase of inductions, for which no date has been set yet. The likely contenders are two of the three independents who have extended support to the government - Alexio Reginald Lourenco (another former Congressman) and Dr Chandrakant Shetye, a well-known ophthalmologist. The third independent, Antonio Vas, will likely not be in the cabinet. The political buzz is that all three were unofficially supported by the BJP in the 2022 polls for their winnability factor, though the party had official candidates in place.
On the surface, the creative convolutions of such moves are incomprehensible. But it is a strategy the saffron party has often adopted to disguise its support to its candidates in Catholic-dominated segments where the party tag is a big red flag, and an official candidate acts as the red herring. Lourenco, a four-term legislator, was restive that the Congress had not clinched power since 2012 and had been hedging his bets with the ruling party. Listed as a Congress candidate for 2022, Lourenco ejected to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on election eve, then quit the TMC in a month when his supporters in the Catholic-dominated assembly segment of Curtorim made their displeasure felt. His re-entry into the Congress was denied subsequently, so Lourenco contested and won as an independent, reaping both the benefit of his old Congress vote bank and BJP supporters in the segment. Independent legislator Dr Shetye had been offered the BJP ticket but chose to contest as an independent. The last cabinet position is likely to go to the BJP's electoral rival and harsh critic Ramkrishna Sudin Dhavlikar of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).
Twenty BJP MLAs, three independents and two MGP legislators - totalling 25, had been paraded before Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai when Pramod Sawant staked his claim on March 21 to form a government. A contest for the chief minister's post, cabinet positions and the inclusion of the MGP in government - were the thorny issues that plagued and delayed staking a claim, cabinet formation and swearing-in. Sawant, who had been elevated by the BJP in 2019 after the demise of Manohar Parrikar, found his position again challenged by rival Vishwajit Rane. Rane's connections in the central BJP, his spectacular wins, and the fact that he brought in two seats (his wife Deviya also won) from the Congress to the BJP kitty were key factors in his favour, but his rival peers in the cabinet preferred Sawant for the post. Sawant, the lone RSS man in the 20 member BJP legislature party, was the central leadership's favoured nominee. However, it took days and a final meeting with the Union home minister before the chief ministerial issue was resolved.
With multiple contenders, a top-heavy legislature party that includes both Congress imports that had been ministers and even one chief minister (Ravi Naik) and its outgoing ministers - the leadership took its time to finalise cabinet formation. The inclusion of only BJP legislators in the first phase of inductions was good both for national optics and to assuage the rumblings of multi-term legislators, who had made their displeasure public at the possible induction of the MGP into the government. Considering the BJP needs the MGP's support for the South Goa Lok Sabha seat, the central leadership is pushing for Dhavlikar's inclusion but has met with stiff resistance, including Sawant camp followers.
The central leadership's micro-level overseeing and management of Goa BJP's affairs and government formation has been stark. More so since commentators are contrasting this to the Parrikar regime, where the former chief minister ran his ship with near-total control, quick decisiveness and zero central involvement. In contrast, the final cabinet announcements were made after a meeting with Goa election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis late Sunday night, with the government taking shape 18 days after results were declared to accommodate the schedule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Over centralisation and over-dependence in decision making on New Delhi and central leaders is already beginning to impact governance in the state. Commentators and the opposition pointed to anomalies and unprecedented delays in the processes of government formation. As the party floundered on its chief minister's decision, a pro-tem Speaker administered the oaths of office to 40 legislators as the 2017 assembly term ended, even before a government had staked a claim to the Governor, it was pointed out. Goa's swearing-in process delay also means a hurried two-day vote-on-account before March 31. The assembly will meet Tuesday and Wednesday to elect a Speaker and take a vote on account to tide over finances until a full-fledged Budget is tabled.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who has been at pains to fill in the shoes of his predecessor, made it a point to personally accept the wishes of party workers that thronged the ceremony. Analysts, though, see his challenge as greater after the party inducted a series of additional political heavyweights and stalwarts from the Congress before the February 14 polls, in a strategy of pre-emptive poaching and poll-eve defections to beat its ten-year anti-incumbency disadvantage.
Sawant's approach is currently more earnest, but his comparative inexperience compared to the stalwarts on his team makes his position challenging. Additionally, the party's Goa organisation secretary Satish Dhond, widely known to be a key decision-maker behind Sawant's three-year term since 2019, is also displaying signs of wanting to come out of the shadows and enjoy a bit of the limelight and recognition he recently garnered from the media.
Sawant's biggest challenge, though, is on the economic front. He is seen as the Centre's man due to his selection in 2019 and his adherence and repetition of the Modi programme while the local economy felt orphaned.
Industry bodies in Goa, eager to make up for pandemic-related lost time and an economy in the red, overtly displayed signs of impatience and exasperation. A joint statement on Sunday from several industry bodies sought ease of doing business, standard operating procedures and time-bound government clearance, a corruption-free atmosphere and representation on planning boards and industry-related decision making bodies. A decade-long mining halt and pandemic induced charter tourism slowdowns have crippled state and private finances, including employment generation. While Sawant has pledged to address all three issues on priority, the local industry has pointedly said "much more is desired from the new government".
(Pamela D'Mello is a journalist based in Goa)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
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