Goa CM Pramod Sawant may drop minister Govind Gaude from his cabinet today

Panaji: Less than a week after art and culture minister Govind Gaude made serious allegations of corruption in the chief minister Pramod Sawant-held tribal welfare department, Sawant has decided to strip Gaude of his cabinet post.

Sawant, who came down strongly against Gaude and said he would act against his cabinet colleague, is likely to drop him from the minister’s post on Saturday.

Top sources said the state leadership has already taken a decision to drop Gaude, who has courted controversies in the past including the shoddy handling of the Kala Academy work, and they were just waiting for the central leadership nod, which they expect on Saturday.

Gaude had tried a damage-control exercise by blaming the media for misinterpreting his statement and said he never stated that Sawant is involved in any corruption.

Gaude also tried to drum up support through the United Tribals Associations Alliance (UTAA) and create pressure not to drop him, with the association actively campaigning in support of him for the past two days.

Gaude’s remarks were also taken seriously by BJP state president Damodar ‘Damu’ Naik, who had summoned him and made it clear that the party would not tolerate and action would be taken against the minister.

This is the second time that Sawant will be dropping a cabinet minister in his first full term as the chief minister, after assuming the post in 2022. In Nov 2023, Sawant had dropped Nilesh Cabral as the PWD minister.

Gaude, who was first elected as an independent MLA in 2017, became a first-time minister in former chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s cabinet. He continued as a minister in Sawant’s cabinet after the death of Parrikar in 2019.

In Jan 2022, Gaude resigned from Sawant’s cabinet and as an independent MLA to join BJP. After joining BJP, he was allotted a party ticket to contest the 2022 assembly election from Priol constituency. After he won the election, Sawant retained him in his cabinet.

The whole issue snowballed when Gaude launched a scathing attack on the tribal welfare department last Sunday and raised questions about the department’s administrative efficiency and transparency. “A huge amount of taxpayers’ money is allotted to the tribal welfare department. If it is unable to organise this programme efficiently, then it only shows a lack of control over the administration,” Gaude had said.

Gaude also made allegations about some behind-the-scenes operations. “The files of the contractors are handled under the Shram Shakti Bhavan building (from where the tribal welfare department functions) on the sly. And they think we don’t know of such things,” he had said at an event organised by the tribal welfare department in association with the UTAA at Ponda. The minister was seemingly piqued over the poor turnout at the event.

A day later, Sawant strongly came down on his cabinet colleague for raising serious charges against him and had said, “action will be taken against Gaude”.

“A responsible minister should make a responsible statement. He should not make irresponsible statements. Necessary action will be taken as soon as possible,” Sawant had said.