Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Though Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has steadfastly declined to comment on a potential reorganization of his team, rumours of a Cabinet reorganization continue to circulate within the administration.
The topic of discussion centres on Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar’s potential appointment to the Cabinet, as well as the inclusion of a few Congress turncoats, including former chief minister Digambar Kamat.
In the meantime, rumours that Tawadkar would be joining the Cabinet picked up steam following the Speaker’s recent visit to Delhi, where he had meetings with BJP leaders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Additionally, Aleixo Sequeira is the only one of the eight Congress defectors who has secured a position in the Cabinet thus far. In November of last year, he was sworn in as a minister following Nilesh Cabral’s resignation to make way.
Since then, there has been constant and increasing speculation about a Cabinet reshuffle to include more defectors. Names such as Tawadkar, Kamat, and Calangute MLA Michael Lobo and Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar are rumoured to be on the shortlist.
Out of the eight defectors, Kamat, Lobo, and Amonkar are the only three who have not been given an office.
In the meantime, Sawant will need to remove current ministers in order to make room for new ones because Goa and other small states are only allowed a maximum of 12 ministers—including the chief minister—per the constitutional arrangement.
According to sources, at least three Cabinet members have received notice: Govind Gaude, Minister of Arts and Culture; Nilkanth Halarnkar, Minister of Fisheries; and, shockingly, Minister of Agriculture, Ravi Naik.
Sawant is adamantly declining to discuss whether he will use his authority to rearrange his team. Now that Sequeira has been sworn in at Cabral’s expense, the BJP State President, Sadanand Shet Tanavade, an MP for the Rajya Sabha, who had previously ruled out any additional changes, is asserting that it is the chief minister’s prerogative.
