PANAJI
There's never a dull moment in Goa's politics.
Days after the marathon 18-day monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly ended, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is bracing up to effect a Cabinet reshuffle, the second in the current term.
While he has not said anything on record about rejigging his team, Sawant has been talking with his close aides, including BJP State president and Rajya Sabha MP, Sadanand Shet Tanavade, about the exercise.
The chief minister has also discussed the Cabinet reshuffle with the BJP central leaders during his recent visit to the national capital.
"At least three ministers are expected to be replaced. There is no clarity who these three will be but it is certain that Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar will be inducted," a top BJP source told The Goan.
Another name doing the rounds is that of former chief minister Digambar Kamat, who was among the eight Congress MLAs who switched over to the BJP, less than six months after the 2022 elections.
Kamat is among those eight turncoats who has not been accommodated in the government like Calangute MLA, Michael Lobo. Environment Minister, Aleixo Sequeira, who was inducted into the Cabinet last year is only defector to make the cut.
Mormugao MLA, Sankalp Amonkar, is also not holding any position after he refused to take charge of the position of Bal Bhavan Chairperson.
Sawant may go in for the changes very soon and definitely before the Ganesh Chaturthi festival slated to begin on September 7.
The move comes at a time when reports have emerged of serious discord among senior members of his cabinet, manifested in stormy deliberations at its last meeting held on the sidelines of the Assembly session.
At least three senior ministers -- Industries Minister Mauvin Godinho, Revenue Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate and Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte -- are said to have engaged in heated arguments with TCP Minister, Vishwajit Rane, who had been facing the heat over large-scale conversion of land-use zoning and his move to bring in a controversial amendment to the TCP Act to give the Chief Town Planner a carte-blanche on both past and future zone change decisions, insulated from judicial review.
The heated exchanges at the Cabinet meeting, which sources said involved the use of cuss words, had ended with Rane withdrawing the TCP amendment and three other bills pertaining to his portfolios, in a huff.
Apart from changing faces in his Cabinet, Sawant is also likely to effect major changes in the portfolios allocated to his ministers, an exercise which will be keenly watched to see if he makes any changes in the departments held by Rane. The latter holds several important portfolios, including health, forest and women and child development apart from the hefty TCP.
