Panaji: Goa Deputy Chief Minister and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Sudin Dhavalikar, who held the Public Works Department Ministry, was dropped from the Pramod Sawant-led cabinet on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after Sawant dropped his senior-most minister amid rising acrimony between leaders of the BJP and the MGP, Dhavalikar said: “At night, the chowkidars who have committed dacoity on MGP have shocked the people of Goa. People of Goa are watching this. People will decide on the course of action.”
The development comes hours after two of the three MGP MLAs split from the regional party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the early hours of Wednesday.
Deepak Pauskar, one of the two MGP MLAs, who split and merged the legislative unit of their regional party and joined the BJP in the early hours of Wednesday, is likely to be sworn-in as a cabinet minister.
In his first reaction to the dramatic development Sudin Dhavalikar indirectly warned the two MLAs that their political future may well be over.
“I have been assured that there will be a swearing-in at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday afternoon. I will be happy with any ministry of the Chief Minister’s choosing,” Pauskar told reporters at the Assembly complex.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant also said that the swearing-in of Pauskar would be held on Wednesday.
At 1.45 am on Wednesday, the two MGP MLAs Pauskar and Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar engineered a split in the three-member MGP legislative unit and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Sawant and state BJP president Vinay Tendulkar.
The move takes the legislative strength of the BJP to 14, at par with the Congress which also has 14 legislators.
The merger came on the heels of a growing discomfort between the BJP and the MGP over share of ministerial berths as well as the latter’s decision to field its state president Dipak Dhavalikar as a candidate for the upcoming Assembly bypoll in Shiroda against BJP’s candidate Subhash Shirodkar.