Who is Vishwajit Rane and why is he a problem for the Goa BJP?

When a government notification went out on October 19, it followed a video message from the chief minister of Goa. Son of Goa’s longest-serving chief minister Pratapsingh Rane,, Vishwajit hails from a clan of warrior chieftains from Rajasthan whose story of arrival in Goa changes depending on whom you ask. As recently as July, Sawant was forced to clarify at a public function that there were no differences between him and Vishwajit and that they were one “working together under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” However, rumours of a rift reached a peak during the Covid pandemic in May 2021 when Sawant wrested control of the oxygen supply to the Goa Medical College and Hospital after allegations that Rane as health minister was manhandling the logistics that saw as many as 85 people die over successive nights allegedly due to oxygen shortage. “Ever since Manohar Parrikar’s death, Rane Jr has been consumed by the ambition to become chief minister and, once, even put on RSS fatigues to a Sangh public function. “Vishwajit Rane’s move to convert 20% of the green cover in Pernem for luxury projects, his unilateral decision to bring in hurried changes to the Regional Plan via the zoning plan and his very public abuse of members of the Goa Foundation, display a sense of power and invincibility he believes he enjoys within the BJP run by a weak chief minister,” Sequeira said.