BJP’s Goa plan — reduce Parrikar’s workload, induct defecting MLAs
Politics

BJP’s Goa plan — reduce Parrikar’s workload, induct defecting MLAs

BJP will also continue to look for a permanent solution to leadership crisis. A meeting between BJP chief Amit Shah and Goa allies is expected in next two days.

   
File image of Goa CM Manohar Parrikar | Wikimedia Commons | Glenn Fawcett

File image of Manohar Parrikar | Wikimedia Commons | Glenn Fawcett

BJP will also continue to look for a permanent solution to leadership crisis. A meeting between BJP chief Amit Shah and Goa allies is expected in next two days.

Mumbai: Amid uncertainty over the future of the BJP-led government in Goa, the party has drawn up a strategy to reduce the role of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar — who is battling a severe illness — to just an administrator for now and put most of the onus on the party’s ministers.

BJP’s immediate response to Goa’s leadership crisis involves trimming the number of departments that Parrikar holds, strengthening the BJP’s numbers against the Congress in the Goa assembly by inducting defecting MLAs, and making forays into opposition constituencies.


Also read: Goa politicians only agree on one thing: Don’t dissolve Assembly


“Mr Parrikar’s health has not improved. He can speak and move around, but ultimately he cannot work the way he used to earlier,” a BJP minister in the Parrikar cabinet told ThePrint.

“So, for now, it has been decided that he will only monitor the functioning of the government while the other ministers and bureaucrats do most of the heavy-lifting,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, the party will continue to look for a permanent solution to the state’s leadership crisis with Parrikar’s health still fragile. There may be a meeting of BJP national president Amit Shah with allies — Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Goa Forward Party — in the next two days.

The Goa government is currently headed by the BJP, in alliance with regional parties and Independents. The BJP has 14 MLAs in the 40-member assembly elected in 2017, while the Congress until Tuesday was the single-largest party with 16. However, two Congress legislators — Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte — met Shah and are likely to join the BJP Tuesday evening.

BJP’s immediate plan

For starters, this week Parrikar intends to shed many of the departments he is in charge of and retain just the four or five key segments, which may include finance, general administration, home and perhaps personnel or education, BJP sources said.

A senior BJP leader said, Parrikar currently oversees nearly 22 departments, organised under about five or six major portfolios.

He is also scheduled to meet senior bureaucrats Wednesday to discuss pending policy issues and allocate responsibilities.

Besides, the party leadership has divided the assembly constituencies that the Congress holds in Goa among the state’s BJP ministers, the assembly speaker and the deputy speaker and asked them to visit them every week and interact with the BJP’s cadre and voters.

“We have been asked to visit our own constituencies as well as the constituencies that Congress holds at least once a week, be available at the local BJP office there to meet people, hear their issues as well as build a base of BJP foot-soldiers there,” a party source said.

Congress struggling to keep its flock together

The Goa Congress, which has approached Governor Mridula Sinha four times to stake claim to form government since Parrikar took ill, is now struggling to keep its flock together.

“With regards to Sopte and Shirodkar, the party had an inkling that they were cozying up to the BJP and we tried our best to convince them, but if a person has decided to leave the party we cannot stop them,” said a senior Congress MLA who did not wish to be named.

“The party leadership is now reaching out to all our MLAs to ensure there are no more defections,” the Congress legislator added.

ThePrint has reached Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar and leader of the opposition Chandrakant Kavalekar for comment but there was no response until the time of publishing the report.

The party Monday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind asking him to direct the Goa governor to allow Congress a floor test, citing complete collapse of administration under the Parrikar government.

The Congress also claimed that Parrikar had dissolved the assembly unilaterally in the past while on the brink of losing power and may do so again.

In 2002, Parrikar had shown a resolution of the council of ministers to dissolve the assembly, but the opposition cried foul saying it was forged.

The current crisis 

Parrikar, on whom Goa’s shaky coalition hinges, was at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for almost a month, and returned to Goa Sunday. BJP MLAs had a meeting to discuss the situation Monday.


Also read: With Manohar Parrikar indisposed, BJP concerned about ‘go Goa gone’


The chief minister has been in and out of Goa for medical treatment since February. The party’s allies told BJP central observers last month that they are not in favour of dissolution of the assembly and asked the BJP to find a permanent solution to end the administration logjam.

The party, however, does not have many alternatives for leadership that will appeal to all allies equally and keep the government afloat. Also, there is an over-reliance on Parrikar, who has been the only rallying point for the BJP to be able to cobble together an alliance of diverse political outfits.