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Updated: Apr 23, 2020 23:29 IST

Pramod Sawant, the Goa Assembly’s 45-year-old Speaker, will be the coastal state’s next Chief Minister, a BJP leader said on Monday evening after hours of negotiations with its allies. Sawant was elected leader of the BJP legislature party at a meeting held in the state capital minutes after Manohar Parrikar was given a state funeral with full military honours. BJP chief Amit Shah and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari met the legislators before the formal resolution was passed.

“Nitin Gadkari would, after some speaking to leaders of all parties, would clear the path for formation of a new government and after that, they will go together to meet the governor to stake claim,” Amit Shah who was in Goa to pay his last respects to the former defence minister, told reporters. “The Goa government will be formed in a short while from how,” Shah said.

Hours later, the state government said the swearing-in ceremony would be held at 11 pm. But the wrinkles that Nitin Gadkari had to iron out, appeared to be much more stubborn than the BJP had anticipated.

“There are many things which are to be discussed among allies and BJP leaders. The swearing-in will not happen at 11pm tonight,” Goa’s deputy Speaker Michael Lobo told reporters late at night. He did not elaborate.

Sources said the BJP had been open to inducting two deputy chief ministers, one from each of the two allies. Reports indicated that the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which had three legislators, could split isolating its leader and CM aspirant Sudin Dhavalikar. “Two MGP legislators are ready to support the BJP-led coalition,” a source said.

Watch: Remembering Manohar Parrikar and the void he leaves behind in Goa and India

Pramod Sawant’s late night swearing-in ceremony was aimed at beating the midnight deadline to have a chief minister in place. “If the Governor feels that immediately no government is possible, she must recommend President’s rule and keep the assembly in suspended animation,” Cleofato Almeida Coutinho a lawyer and constitutional commentator told HT earlier in the day.

Parrikar, 63, who had been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in February last year, died on Sunday evening, prompting the opposition Congress to attempt for an opportunity to form government.

With 14 lawmakers, the Congress is the largest party in the state assembly. The BJP does have just 12 legislators but it has the support of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Goa Forward Party, its alliance partners that have three legislators each. The BJ-led coalition also has the support of three Independent lawmakers.

The BJP leadership is learnt to have supported Pramod Sawant’s elevation well before Nitin Gadkari started the first round of his late Sunday night meetings with the BJP’s allies. The BJP had expected the allies to play hardball in the absence of Parrikar who had been widely seen as the glue that held the alliance together.

At these meetings, MGP’s five-time lawmaker Sudin Dhavalikar argued that he was the most-senior minister in the Parrikar cabinet and felt that he was Parrikar’s natural successor. In his interactions with the media, he also spoke about the many sacrifices made for the BJP and felt it was payback time.

His party also indicated that it was okay if the state came under central rule rather than let the CM’s chair go to BJP’s Pramod Sawant, a two-time legislator.

The negotiations to persuade the two alliance partners had stretched for longer than expected. Earlier in the day, Goa BJP chief Vijay Tendulkar had set a 2 pm deadline to finalise Parrikar’s successor. “The picture will be clear by 2 pm,” he had told reporters, predicting that the swearing-in ceremony could take place sometime around 3 pm. The first clear announcement of a deal came five hours later.

Sawant an ayurvedic doctor by profession was a leader of the BJP Yuva Morcha and retained his seat from the Sanquelim Assembly constituency in 2017. He won his first election in 2012.