BJP to replace Goa CM, says Sisodia; party says just a rumour

Minutes after Delhi deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the BJP would soon replace Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant due to his poor governance track record and inability to effectively tackle the Covid pandemic, the Goa BJP has dismissed the Aam Aadmi Party's statement as a rumour.

"I do not know. These are rumours. The CM is running the state government well. I feel no party will carry out such changes with just two months (to polls)," BJP Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar told reporters. Elections to the state assembly in Goa is to be held in early 2022.

Earlier on Saturday, Sisodia, quoting sources in the ruling BJP had said that the party's top leadership had prepared a 10-point memorandum of failures of the Sawant government and added that the Chief Minister would be changed soon. Sisodia made the announcement at a press conference in Delhi.

"Just ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in 2022, BJP has decided to continue with its trend of changing its chief minister in Goa as well. The party has cited 10 reasons behind Sawant's expulsion," Sisodia said during a press briefing in Delhi this afternoon.

Sisodia further said, "BJP has also prepared a 10-point failure list. Covid-19 mismanagement tops the list as the chief minister failed to do anything even after the state recorded 50 per cent positivity rate. Panchayats had to impose lockdown at their own level. The Goa government could not even manage cyclonic storm Tauktae as despite the warning, power in Goa remained cut for four complete days."

"The compensation promised by the Goa government to the kin of those whose sole breadwinner died due to Covid-19 was also not fulfilled," he added.

Interestingly, Sawant, state BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade and state organising secretary Satish Dhond had been suddenly summoned to the national capital on Friday.

The trio met BJP national president J.P. Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national general secretary B.L. Santhosh and the party's Goa's desk in-charge and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

"It was an election related meeting," Sawant had said on his return to Goa.

Over the last few months the BJP has changed as many as three Chief Ministers in states like Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Karnataka, where polls are scheduled to be held sooner than later.

--IANS

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