Pramod Sawant, Goa BJP leaders to meet JP Nadda, Amit Shah in Delhi

PTI, Mar 15, 2022, 3:08 PM IST

With the BJP yet to stake a claim to form the next government in Goa even five days after the poll results were declared, caretaker chief minister Pramod Sawant will leave for Delhi on Tuesday evening to meet party president J P Nadda.

According to sources in BJP, a meeting of the Goa BJP legislative party is likely to be held on Wednesday to select the legislative party leader, who will become the next chief minister. Speaking to reporters outside the Assembly Complex, Sawant said Goa unit BJP president Sadanand Tanavade will be also present during his meeting with Nadda.

”I am leaving for Delhi this evening to meet BJP national president JP Nadda,” Sawant said without elaborating.

Sawant said he and other BJP leaders are likely to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

According to sources in BJP, Sawant will discuss the formation of the new government, which will be the third straight term of BJP, with Nadda and other senior leaders.

It can be recalled that Sawant had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on March 8 ahead of poll results.

The BJP has already appointed Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and L Murugan as the observer and co-observer for the selection of the leader of the legislature party in Goa.

Tomar and Murugan are expected to hold a meeting of the BJP legislative party on Wednesday when the legislative party leader will be decided, who will become the next chief minister.

On Monday, Tanavade had said that the new government will take oath after Holi, which falls on March 18.

The BJP has won a maximum of 20 seats in the 40-member Goa Assembly in recent polls, results for which were declared on March 10. With two MLAs of the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party and three Independents extending their support to BJP, the saffron party appears to be in a comfortable position in the House.

BJP’s nearest challenger Congress had won 11 seats, MGP 2, AAP 2, GFP 1, Revolutionary Goans 1, and Independents 3 in the polls.

Earlier on Tuesday, 39 of the 40 newly-elected members of the Goa Assembly took oath during the session convened by Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai.

A day earlier, the governor had administered the oath to another MLA Ganesh Gaonkar as pro-tem Speaker.