PANJIM: The MGP surely knows what a lion’s share means, when it comes to controlling big ticket and high spending infrastructure projects.
Early speculation that MGP may not have negotiated well during government formation was laid to rest on Wednesday when Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar announced that chairman of the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation would be MGP MLA Dipak Pawaskar.
With Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar having landed the Public Works Department, all infrastructure development in the State is now in the hands of the MGP.
That’s not all, the party has also been allotted the Tourism portfolio and is likely to get Transport and possibly even Sports, when the final list of portfolios is out next week.
Since 2000, MGP has manoeuvred itself well to remain in power and that too with major portfolios like PWD and Transport in almost every dispensation.
After the results of the 2017 polls, the party with three seats turned kingmaker during talks with government formation and walked away with two cabinet posts and the PWD and Tourism portfolios. There was some speculation of whether Goa Forward had got the better deal, as all three MLAs of the new regional party had been made ministers. But the chairmanship of the GSIDC laid to rest that speculation.
But for BJP, it is survival of the government that counts. “The BJP will do anything to ensure this government survives and they can give away any portfolio just so that the alliance partners are happy and the government does not collapse. The people of Goa have not given them a mandate and to stay in power they can give any portfolios,” Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant (Babu) Kavalekar said.
Getting GSIDC, works well for Dhavalikar who during the previous term, was not happy with the manner in which major infrastructure projects were allotted to GSIDC, then chaired by BJP’s Pramod Sawant, rather than to PWD.
Right from construction of the third bridge over River Mandovi to renovation of the Dona Paula-Miramar road to several other bridges and reconstruction of school complexes, all the projects were handled by GSIDC.
For MGP it’s not been just being in power, but grabbing plum portfolios too, leading to their election alliance partner Goa Suraksha Manch having quipped, “They always intended to join the BJP to stay in power. It is their style that once they win they want to be in power.”
Be it the Digambar Kamat government or the Laxmikant Parsekar government, MGP has always got the cream. Even though BJP had a majority with 21 seats in 2012, MGP was rewarded with major portfolios like Transport and PWD. Sources said the main reason for this could be the excellent relations between Dhavalikar with Union Road Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari.
