No CM, No CAC, No Clue: Crisis continues in coalition

Team Herald

PANJIM/NEW DELHI: Goa’s political paralysis continued for another day as BJP failed to identify a worthy successor to ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar as he continues to battle a grave health condition at AIIMS, New Delhi. Senior party members, elected as well as cadres, have grown weary as no end seems to be in sight for the way forward.

Party sources in Delhi confirm that one of the vexing solutions that the party faces is of a worthy successor to Parrikar who will be acceptable to not only the allies but also its own party cadre.

Names ranging from Union AYUSH Minister Sripad Naik to BJP State president and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar to Goa Assembly Speaker Pramod Sawant to Bicholim MLA Rajesh Patnekar have all been toyed with but have not yet found favour across the spectrum. 

In the crucial meeting between BJP National president Amit Shah, 3-member committee led by National General Secretary (Organisation) Ram Lal and 3 BJP MPs from the State, Shah is said to have asked point-blank whether BJP in Goa could survive a floor test that is mandatory for a new Chief Minister. Lack of an emphatic floor plan by the rest of the members at the meeting seemed to have led to the dropping of the plan to have a new CM.

Efforts to have a Deputy CM with powers of the CM, while Parrikar recuperates from his illness too seems to have drawn a nought as Parrikar has declined to relinquish charge. Sources within the party say that despite the public posturing of his own party Ministers and alliance Ministers, Parrikar is wary of transferring power into the hands of anybody else. The absence of a solid succession plan, despite Parrikar wishing to relinquish charge earlier this week, is where the whole exercise seems to have hit a roadblock.

Even the plans to replace two ailing Ministers – Francis D’Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar – with Pramod Sawant and Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral seem to have failed as D’Souza has declined to resign. Unconfirmed reports state that D’Souza had told the emissaries to seek the resignation of his senior in the Cabinet too before seeking his. A livid D’Souza seems to have been miffed for being sidelined repeatedly for the top job in the past.

As an uneasy silence grips the coalition where the MGP (that was once in the running for CM’s post) has gone silent and GFP, the party that scuttled MGP’s bid, the efforts to reconstitute the 3-minister Cabinet Advisory Committee (CAC) also seems to have taken a backseat. 

BJP sources reveal that even for nominating BJP’s Minister for CAC to replace Francis D’Souza, there seems to be no replacement by consensus. There are only two BJP Ministers left – Health Minister Vishwajit Rane and Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho – who can represent the ailing Francis. Here again, BJP is wary that it will upset its own cadres as both the Ministers are recent imports from Congress. The crisis meanwhile continues into another day.