Four new ministers take oath of office

PANJIM: Three Congress rebels and one BJP loyalist were inducted into the Pramod Sawant government on Saturday, after the chief minister dropped four ministers belonging to the coalition partners.

In the second Cabinet expansion in less than four months, Governor Dr Mridula Sinha administered the oath to former Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo, ex-Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, Felipe Neri Rodrigues and Jennifer Monserrate. Kavlekar will be nominated as Deputy Chief Minister.

The induction came hours after Sawant dropped Goa Forward Party (GFP) ministers Vijai Sardesai, Jayesh Salgaonkar and Vinod Palyencar and Independent Rohan Khaunte from the Cabinet. 

Calangute MLA Lobo, Quepem MLA Kavlekar and Taleigao MLA Jennifer, wife of Atanasio Monserrate, have been inducted as ministers for the first time. Jennifer is also the only woman minister in the 12-member Cabinet, which has 11 ministers from BJP and one Independent.

“We have inducted four new ministers in the Cabinet. All are BJP MLAs. As per directions of the BJP Central leadership, we dropped four existing ministers from the coalition,” Sawant told media persons after the swearing-in ceremony. 

Sawant said he is confident that all the ministers will work in the interest of people of Goa and the State. “I am sure that my ministers will work with total dedication towards development and upliftment of the State and its people,” he stated. 

Union Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik, State Ministers Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godinho, Milind Naik, MLAs Dayanand Sopte, Isidore Fernandes, Tony Fernandes, Francis Silveira, Wilfred D’Sa, Churchill Alemao, Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar were amongst those present for the swearing-in ceremony.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister dropped Sardesai, Khaunte, Salgaonkar and Palyenkar from the Cabinet. In a notification issued, Joint Secretary General Administration Gourish Kurtikar said that the Governor of Goa has accepted the recommendation of Chief Minister that all the four members shall cease to be the members of the Council of Ministers, with immediate effect. 

GFP and three Independents had supported late Manohar Parrikar to form a coalition government after BJP failed to get majority in March 2017 election. All the four, continued their support to Sawant-led government, post demise of Parrikar on March 17.

On Wednesday, a group of ten Congress MLAs broke away from the party and merged their legislative wing with the BJP, thus increasing the saffron party’s strength to 27 in the 40-member House.