NEW DELHI/GUWAHATI: Incumbent chief ministers of Manipur and Goa N Biren Singh and Pramod Sawant are likely to get a second term in the office. The central leadership of the BJP is learnt to have approved their continuation after a detailed discussion.
In Manipur, the party won 32 seats in the 60-member House enabling it to form the government on its own for the first time. In Goa, the BJP secured 20 out of 40 seats and has the support of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which won two seats.
Both leaders met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday in Delhi, which suggested they would continue as chief ministers.
“In all probability, they (Singh and Sawant) will be repeated. However, the final decision is to be taken by the Parliamentary Board,” said a BJP leader privy to the matter.
Sawant was accompanied by the BJP Goa desk in-charge CT Ravi and state unit president Sadanand Shet Tanavade during the meeting with the PM.
"Met @DrPramodPSawant and the team of @BJP4Goa. Our party is grateful to the people of Goa for blessing us yet again with the mandate to serve the state. We will keep working for Goa's progress in the times to come," Prime Minister Modi tweeted after the meeting.
With two MLAs of the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three Independents extending their support to BJP, the saffron party appears to be in a comfortable position in the Assembly.
However, the BJP has not yet staked a claim to form a government in Goa, which will be its third straight term.
After meeting the prime minister, Sawant wrote on his Facebook page stating "Met the Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji in New Delhi today, along with National General Secretary Shri C T Ravi ji, BJP Goa President Shri Sadanand Shet Tanavade ji and Gen Sec Org Shri Satish Dhond ji. Briefed the PM on BJP's resounding success in the Goa Assembly Polls, 2022. The PM conveyed his gratitude to the people of Goa for reposing their trust and faith in BJP and assured his continued support for the development of the state".
Sources in BJP had said on Tuesday that a meeting of the Goa BJP legislature party is likely to be held on Wednesday to select the legislature party leader, who will become the next chief minister.
Speaking to reporters outside the Assembly Complex in Panaji on Tuesday, Sawant had said that he was leaving for Delhi to meet party president J P Nadda.
Sawant had also said he and other BJP leaders are likely to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah during their Delhi visit.
The BJP has already appointed Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and L Murugan as the observer and co-observer for the selection of the leader of the legislature party in Goa.
BJP's nearest challenger Congress had won 11 seats in the Goa elections, MGP 2, AAP 2, GFP 1, Revolutionary Goans 1, and Independents 3.
On Tuesday, 39 of the 40 newly-elected members of the Goa Assembly took oath during the session convened by Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai.
Another leader close to the party’s decision-making body indicated “status quo”, underscoring the success the BJP achieved under the existing arrangement.
The name of the Manipur CM would be officially announced after Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Kiren Rijiju meet the party’s MLAs.
Both were scheduled to arrive in Imphal on Wednesday, but the visit has been delayed.
Sawant also met Union home minister Amit Shah. In the evening, Nadda met the caretaker chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath and other leaders from the state to discuss government formation so as to strike the right social and regional balance.
NPP leader Conrad K Sangma who had earlier flown to Imphal to seek a place for his party the NPP in the government to be formed, seems miffed by hints that BJP will go ahead and form a single-party government.
Sangma said he would "examine" the situation if his party is not invited to join the government.
While BJP won a simple majority in the house by winning 32 of 60 seats in the assembly results to which were announced last week, the NPP too did creditably winning seven seats.
"Even in the region, the NPP as a national party is part of the NEDA. If the BJP does invite us in government formation in Manipur, we will be happy. If the situation is that we are not part of the government there, we will examine the matter," Conrad Sangma told a group of journalists here.
The NPP had not entered into a pre-poll agreement with the BJP despite being part of the NDA and having BJP as an ally in the Meghalaya government.
BJP leader N Biren Singh has already indicated he did not favour taking NPP into the BJP-led government, though the Naga People's Front is likely to find a place in the new government.
"In case of Manipur, BJP has the majority. The decision will be theirs. If they invite, we will definitely join," the Meghalaya chief minister said.
Manipur's caretaker Chief Minister N Biren Singh as well as former Works Minister Th Biswajit Singh, who is being seen by many as a potential candidate for the chief ministerial chair had flown to Delhi for consultations with BJP's top leadership on Tuesday.
BJP state unit chief A Sharda Devi too is in Delhi ahead of the formation of the new Government in the State.
The party's Central observers and co-observers, Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju, are expected to fly down to Imphal to oversee the election of the chief minister after discussions with the central leadership.
Names for MLC polls
The meeting Nadda had with Yogi Adityanath also discussed possible names for elections to 36 legislative council seats in UP next month.
(With PTI Inputs)