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PANAJI: Amidst major political developments to form the next government, a tug-of-war over the CM post has broken out in the Bharatiya Janata Party camp. Three CM aspirants other than incumbent Chief Minister Pramod Sawant are vying for the top post ahead of the election results.
The three new candidates are Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant “Babu” Kavlekar, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, and Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho.
All candidates are trying hard to form a lobby that supports them in order to win the top post. As soon as voting closed on February 14, several of these candidates began approaching the winning candidates, both inside and outside their party, asking for their support.
Some have even gone so far as to hand out plum portfolios to lure candidates.
Prior to this, the political world was initially abuzz with Sawant, Rane and Godinho vying for the CM post.
However, as the date of counting of votes approaches, Kabalekar too has expressed interest in the post.
Former Speaker Sawant is the only candidate with an RSS background, while all the other candidates have joined the BJP from the Congress. Godinho joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 assembly elections and contested as its candidate. Rane resigned as Congress MLA in 2017 and contested the by-election as a BJP candidate. Kabalekar, who was the opposition leader, merged the legislative wing of the assembly with the BJP in 2019 along with nine other MLAs.
During the election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had already announced that Sawant would be the next Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister. However, lobbying began after the mission was predicted to fail and MGP openly expressed dissatisfaction with Sawant being the CM.
Godinho said he was the oldest member of parliament and Kabalekar had won four consecutive parliamentary elections.
However, after the death of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, Rane became the front-runner for the CM’s seat along with Sawant.
A political commentator said Sawant was chosen as CM over Rane as he was the only one from the cadre.
“Selecting a CM candidate will be a difficult task for the BJP as it will need to come to an agreement with its coalition partners in a situation where the Congress is at a standstill,” he said. “In this case, if the CM aspirant can get maximum number of MLAs in his favor, he will get closer to the post.”
A senior party official said that some party workers are pushing Kabalekar’s name for the CM post to checkmate other candidates.
Senior MGP leader Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar has made it clear that although he does not support Sawant as prime minister, Rane and power minister Nilesh Cabral are qualified for the top post.
The three new candidates are Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant “Babu” Kavlekar, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, and Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho.
All candidates are trying hard to form a lobby that supports them in order to win the top post. As soon as voting closed on February 14, several of these candidates began approaching the winning candidates, both inside and outside their party, asking for their support.
Some have even gone so far as to hand out plum portfolios to lure candidates.
Prior to this, the political world was initially abuzz with Sawant, Rane and Godinho vying for the CM post.
However, as the date of counting of votes approaches, Kabalekar too has expressed interest in the post.
Former Speaker Sawant is the only candidate with an RSS background, while all the other candidates have joined the BJP from the Congress. Godinho joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 assembly elections and contested as its candidate. Rane resigned as Congress MLA in 2017 and contested the by-election as a BJP candidate. Kabalekar, who was the opposition leader, merged the legislative wing of the assembly with the BJP in 2019 along with nine other MLAs.
Expanding
Godinho said he was the oldest member of parliament and Kabalekar had won four consecutive parliamentary elections.
However, after the death of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, Rane became the front-runner for the CM’s seat along with Sawant.
A political commentator said Sawant was chosen as CM over Rane as he was the only one from the cadre.
“Selecting a CM candidate will be a difficult task for the BJP as it will need to come to an agreement with its coalition partners in a situation where the Congress is at a standstill,” he said. “In this case, if the CM aspirant can get maximum number of MLAs in his favor, he will get closer to the post.”
A senior party official said that some party workers are pushing Kabalekar’s name for the CM post to checkmate other candidates.
Senior MGP leader Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar has made it clear that although he does not support Sawant as prime minister, Rane and power minister Nilesh Cabral are qualified for the top post.
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