After several speculations about cabinet reshuffle since the defection of eight Congress MLAs into Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nearly three years ago, the much-awaited rejig is expected to take place on Thursday evening.
Environment Minister Aleix Sequeira has submitted his resignation letter to the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, citing health reasons.
Sawant who is currently in New Delhi to attend GoM of States meeting on GST is likely to cut short his two-day meeting and return Goa on Wednesday late evening. He will later forward Sequeira's resignation letter to the Governor for acceptance, informed party sources.
With Sequeira's resignation two cabinet berth will fall vacant and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar are likely to be inducted as Cabinet Ministers.
In June this year, the Chief Minister had dropped Govind Gaude from the cabinet following his corruption charges in the Tribal Welfare Department.
Meanwhile, Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Wednesday morning held a meeting with his workers and decided to resign as Speaker on Thursday morning.
This will be the second reshuffle of the Sawant government since he retained power in March 2022. Earlier, he had inducted Sequeira after removing Nilesh Cabral from the cabinet in November 2023.
Sequeira and Kamat were part of eight rebel Congress MLAs who had joined ruling BJP in September 2022. There were reports about the commitment to induct some of them into the cabinet.