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Mumbai: In a midnight strike in what’s becoming characteristic of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) politicking in Goa, the saffron party Wednesday bolstered its strength in the state assembly after getting two legislators from a regional ally to merge with it.

The BJP is now on par with the Congress in the Goa assembly — the two parties have 14 members each in the assembly now.

The merger of the two Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) legislators — Deepak Pauskar and Manohar Ajgaonkar — was officiated in the witching hours, post 2 am, about a week after the BJP installed a new chief minister, Pramod Sawant, also in the hush of the night just before 2 am.

While the BJP’s latest sweep in Goa appears to be yet another sudden move in the several twists and turns in the 10 days since former Goa CM Manohar Parrikar’s death, its midnight coup on its ally was pieced together slowly over almost a month.

Also read: After Parrikar’s death, Amit Shah & Nitin Gadkari worked in the background to retain Goa

A fractured MGP

The MGP had three legislators in the Goa assembly — Ajgaonkar, Pauskar and Sudin Dhavalikar — and there were often internal rumblings on how Dhavalikar would collude with his brother, Deepak Dhavalikar, to dominate party affairs and sideline the other two MLAs.

“We were never consulted on anything. In 2017, after the Goa assembly election results, ideally, there should have been a central committee meeting to decide what the party should do next, but they went ahead and assured support to the BJP-led alliance,” Pauskar told ThePrint.

“Even last week, when BJP president Amit Shah and Union minister Nitin Gadkari were holding meetings with alliance partners to decide on the next Goa CM after Manohar Parrikar’s death, Sudin Dhavalikar was negotiating and making tall, improbable, demands without considering our opinions,” Pauskar added.

Within hours of Parrikar’s death last week, Gadkari arrived in Panaji to hunt for a new CM, starting talks with MGP and Goa Forward Party (GFP) leaders and the three Independents who together support the shaky BJP-led government in Goa.

The talks, which began at midnight at the plush Cidade Goa resort in Panaji, went on through the night, through the next day and until the following night, when there was eventually a consensus, and Sawant was sworn in as chief minister just before 2 am.

During discussions, Dhavalikar had pushed for the CM’s post, despite his party having just three legislators in the 40-member House. He eventually settled for the deputy CM’s post.

Talks before the merger

The merger of the two disgruntled MGP legislators with the BJP was almost a pre-scripted story waiting for the perfect opportunity as its climax.

Insiders from both the BJP and MGP said the two legislators had met late CM Manohar Parrikar about a month ago, expressing their wish to be with the BJP in return for significant portfolios.

“At that time, the BJP didn’t act on it because Parrikar was unwell. It would not have looked good,” a senior BJP leader said.

“Moreover, Parrikar was himself not in favour of it. He didn’t want to break any of our allies. He said we should break the Congress if we want to strengthen ourselves,” said the BJP leader.

The two legislators also met Shah and Gadkari separately last week when the BJP was trying to re-broker its understanding with its allies and build consensus for a new CM. While Dhavalikar was playing hardball wanting to be the chief minister, Pauskar and Ajgaonkar were laying the ground with Gadkari and Shah to merge with the BJP.

“At that time, Shah and Gadkari told them to be wait till the parliamentary elections are over, and we can revisit this discussion in May or June,” a source close to the developments said.

Another BJP leader said, “At that time, the understanding within the BJP was also to give the MGP one more chance, despite Dhavalikar’s aggression. But, the Dhavalikar brothers’ recent decision to contest the upcoming bypolls to the state legislature against the BJP was the final straw. That’s when we decided to act.”

Both the BJP and the Congress are gearing up for bypolls to four assembly seats in Goa on 23 April. The seats were vacated by the deaths of two BJP legislators, including Parrikar, and the resignation of two Congress legislators who joined the BJP last year.

Also read: Both Goa MLAs who staged coup in MGP & merged it into ‘ally’ BJP are now state ministers

Goa CM Sawant called Pauskar and Ajgaonkar Tuesday asking them if they were still ready to merge, setting off a slew of meetings through the day where portfolios were discussed and the modalities finalised.

Late Tuesday night, Assembly Speaker Michael Lobo, also a BJP legislator, got a call regarding the development and he rushed to open his office at 1 am.

“Time was of essence. In Goa, where there has been a history of factions breaking away, toppling governments, we could not wait till morning,” said a BJP MLA on condition of anonymity.

“We are a small state. It takes barely anytime to reach the state capital and so we could not take a risk of someone else calling these legislators,” added the BJP MLA.

Pauskar and Ajgaonkar gave a signed letter to the Speaker saying they would like to merge with the BJP and being two of the three MGP MLAs in the House, they form 2/3rd majority.

A little after 2 am, the Speaker passed an order.

The following day, CM Sawant dropped Dhavalikar, who was inducted as deputy CM just last week. Ajgaonkar, who was already part of the cabinet with the sports and tourism portfolios, was Thursday appointed deputy CM along with GFP legislator Vijai Sardesai.

Pauskar, who got Dhavalikar’s old plum public works department portfolio, was inducted in the Sawant-led cabinet Wednesday.

Once again, it was a late-night event at 11.35 pm.

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