Mumbai, March 18: Speaker of the Goa Assembly Pramod Sawant will be sworn in as Chief Minister of Goa on Monday night after a day of hectic political bargaining in Panjim.
According to sources, the regional Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Goa Forward Party have come around to supporting the candidature of Sawant for the top job.
As per the deal brokered by Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Sawant will have two Deputy Chief Ministers — Ramakrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar of the MGP and Vijai Sardessai of the GFP.
All the three leaders will be sworn in together, according to sources from Goa’s capital.
The BJP leadership managed to push through Sawant’s name after Gadkari failed to make any initial headway. Talks between the BJP and the MGP came to an end after the regional party demanded that Dhavalikar be appointed Chief Minister.
This was opposed by GFP and three Independent MLAs apart from the lone NCP MLA Churchill Alemao who are backing the BJP government in Goa.
At one time there were as many has nine of the 36 MLAs in the state legislature who were trying to get the top job following the demise of Manohar Parrikar on Sunday.
Apart from senior BJP leaders, four former CMs in the Congress camp apart from Alemao were trying to win the supporters of MLAs.
The Congress leaders had met Governor Mridula Sinha twice in the past few days to stake claim to form the government. Though the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 17 MLAs after the March 2017 assembly elections, disputes over who would be CM resulted in the smaller parties and Independents joining hands with the BJP.
Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane, who is the son of veteran party leader Pratapsinh Rane, resigned immediately even before taking oath as an MLA and won a byelection on BJP ticket. He was Health Minister in the Parrikar government.
At present, the BJP and the Congress have 12 and 14 MLAs in the state legislature. Of the BJP MLAs, Pandurang Madkaikar is in coma at a Mumbai hospital and is unlikely to vote in the House.
The total strength of the assembly is down to 36 from 40 after the death of Parrikar. Three Congress MLAs resigned and are expected to contest the byelections as BJP candidates.
Earlier in the day, the last rites of Parrikar were conducted with full military honours at the Miramar beach in Panjim. Prominent leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Cabinet ministers, paid homage to Parrikar.
