Team Herald
PANJIM/DELHI: The sudden admission of Health Minister Vishwajit Rane about Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s pancreatic cancer just 48 hours after he himself had said that revealing the latter’s nature of the illness was his family’s prerogative is much more than what meets the eye. Even Rane’s urgency to clean up the state’s fish import trade of formalin points out to BJP’s desperation to have an image makeover as all roads lead to mid-terms polls and dissolution of the Assembly. Sources in the BJP both at the Centre and in the state have revealed that the party has no choice but to dissolve the Assembly and go in for fresh polls as Parrikar isn’t letting go of the chair and there is no alternative emerging given that both BJP and MGP are staking claim to have their own CM.
AFTER PARRIKAR, BJP’s WHO?
Senior leaders at BJP Headquarters in Delhi reveal that the summoning of Health Minister Vishwajit Rane along with TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai of Goa Forward Party and PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar of MGP by BJP National President Amit Shah was to gauge the acceptability of a new BJP CM post-Parrikar. In stark opposition to BJP’s established practice of having an RSS background CM or one from the BJP cadres, Vishwajit Rane has emerged as the Chief Ministerial candidate for BJP. Rane Jr upstaged Speaker Dr Pramod Sawant, who even made a trip to Nagpur to have RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat’s blessings with former CM front-runner Shripad Naik. “Rane has a strong backing of senior BJP leaders including aunt Vasundhara Raje Scindia and Poonam Mahajan besides a heavyweight influencer very close to Shah and that is how he is the choice”, says a party functionary in the know.
However, the State BJP which is witnessing an open war of words between the state party command on one side and old RSS assigned BJP leaders including former CM Laxmikant Parsekar, former Speaker Rajendra Arlekar on the other and rebelling cadres in Mandrem and Shiroda and the disgruntled Catholic MLAs from Bardez is no position to take a call on Rane. Also, the fact remains that Parrikar despite his absolute immobilising condition refuses to go off the command as he has summoned the Cabinet on October 31 and Investment Promotion Board Meeting on October 30 from his bedside. A coalition partner rues “he has 28 portfolios despite his incapacitated condition and these departments are witnessing absolutely no works since past 8 months but he won’t let go of that since he trusts no one. The situation is so bad that from 25% cuts in expenses now, it will end in almost 50% cuts in expenses by December. BJP’s party command also wants this Government to become an impossibility and then dissolve the Cabinet and the Assembly”.
POST PARRIKAR, MGP ISN’T RELENTING
The senior most minister in the coalition after Parrikar, MGP’s Sudin Dhavalikar had emphatically put across to Shah during the recent trip that “All of us are equal stakeholders in the State Cabinet and we must follow the established Convention of the second senior most Cabinet Minister taking over the CM’s post”. Dhavalikar apparently was assuaged by Shah that Rane was not in the running for CM’s post as he is a new entrant to the party and should spend at least five more years to be in the CM-inisterial reckoning. But then BJP isn’t budging on giving the CM’ship to Sudin. This, despite the fact that it knows that it would need MGP’s coalition to win both North and South Goa Parliamentary seats emphatically in 2019. Sources at headquarters reveal that BJP would be more looking at a pan-India presence of BJP-ruled states with its own CM rather than letting go off its turf. This, however, may well be catastrophic for BJP as it now stands to lose both Parliamentary seats if MGP is upset.
Even the other coalition partner isn’t all that happy despite the fact that GFP has been more emphatic in public posturing its support and commitment to BJP and the coalition.
However, this honeymoon may soon be turning sour as Parrikar has been making matters difficult for the TCP Department by recommending a whopping Rs 750 per sq mtr increase in the mere application for zone conversion. The move that has since then be whetted both by the Law and Finance Department despite TCP Department’s protest that such exorbitant increase will trigger a development slowdown, has been met with stoic silence. The move, for any property above 500 sq mts to be charged thus for application, has left the active coalition partner unhappy. This move may sour relationships further.
DISSOLVE ASSEMBLY,
MID-TERM POLLS
The writing is on the wall. MGP has earlier announced that it will wait for another month for a change of guard pending which it will announce its next course of action. The timing overlaps with the announcement of results for the four crucial Assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram that shall decide BJP’s electoral fortunes in next year’s Parliamentary polls. “We have as a Cabinet of coalition partners not decided together over many matters since so many months now as there have been no Cabinet meetings”, says Deepak Dhavalikar, MGP President, making it very clear that his party can see the obvious signs.
Sources within BJP and MGP reveal that they are readying for the inevitable – the dissolution of Goa Assembly and mid-term polls. The polls may coincide with parliamentary elections giving the State BJP enough time to regroup itself under Governor’s Rule. “We know that BJP shall blame it on us coalition partners for not accepting its CM as the reason for dissolving the Assembly but the fact is BJP itself is a rudderless and headless divided house”, says one of the constituent MLA of the ruling coalition. With no miracle in sight for the divided coalition, the State may well be heading to a dissolution before the end of this year, even earlier.
