NT NETWORK
Panaji
In order to ensure the victory of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates at the Lok Sabha elections and the three by-elections, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has initiated an exercise to keep the flock of ruling MLAs together.
On Wednesday, Sawant called a meeting of his cabinet ministers, BJP MLAs and the coalition partners at the Assembly complex wherein strategy for the Lok Sabha election and bypolls to the three assembly constituencies was discussed. A general discussion was also held on various matters pertaining to issues in ruling MLAs’ constituencies.
The meeting was attended by BJP MLAs and ministers besides Goa Forward Party chief and Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai and his MLAs, Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude and Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte.
Speaking to media after the meeting, Sawant said that after taking over charge as Chief Minister, he had not met all ruling MLAs together, hence he called a meeting to listen to their
grievances, if any, and other related issues.
The ministers who attended the meeting said that the Chief Minister had called the meeting to listen to views of ruling MLAs about issues from their respective constituencies and to take a review of Lok Sabha election campaign.
In order to show unity of the coalition government, the Chief Minister will come before the media along with the allies on Thursday.
Earlier this week, Sawant had also met all alliance partners personally seeking their support for both the BJP candidates at the Lok Sabha polls.
During the meeting, Chief Minister told the alliance partners to ensure their support to BJP candidates and asked them to hold meetings at their level in their respective constituencies. He had met Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar a few days back. However, Gaonkar could not attend the meeting called by the Chief Minister on Wednesday.
Sawant had also asked Porvorim MLA and Revenue Minister Khaunte to hold meetings with his supporters in support of North Goa candidate Shripad Naik.
BJP is planning to hold a meeting in Margao under the banner of NDA wherein the party will invite Sardesai.