PANJIM: Dr Pramod Sawant, three-time MLA from Sanquelim, was on Monday sworn in as the Chief Minister of Goa for the second time at a function attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers, and chief ministers of some other States. Along with Sawant, eight other MLAs from BJP were administered the oath of office by Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai.
Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel read out the order of the Governor appointing the CM and his cabinet.
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Besides Sawant, the others who took oath as Ministers are – Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godinho, Ravi Naik, Nilesh Cabral, Subhash Shirodkar, Rohan Khaunte, Govind Gaude and Atanasio Monserrate.
Sawant took the oath in Konkani. This is his second term as the State’s Chief Minister. He had taken over as head of government in March 2019 after the demise of then chief minister Manohar Parrikar.
Rane, Godinho, Cabral and Gaude were member of the Sawant-led cabinet from 2019-22, while Khaunte was a minister in the Parrikar-headed government and for a brief period in the Sawant cabinet.
Sawant, under whose leadership the BJP reached 20 seats – one short of a majority – in the recent elections to the 40-member State Assembly, is the third Chief Minister from the party after late Manohar Parrikar and Laxmikant Parsekar.
The term of the last Assembly ended on March 15. The new government took charge almost 18 days after the election results were announced on March 10.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for State Shripad Naik, Himachal Pradesh Governor Rajendra Arlekar, BJP national president J P Nadda, BJP Goa desk in-charge CT Ravi, Maharashtra former chief minister Devendra Fadanavis were present for the ceremony.
Chief Ministers of several BJP-governed States including Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana), Shivraj Singh Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh), Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand), Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), Basavaraj Bommai (Karnataka), Biplab Kumar Deb (Tripura), Jairam Thakur (Himachal Pradesh) and others also attended the ceremony held at the Shama Prasad Mukherjee stadium.
This is the second time that Goa’s chief minister was sworn in outside the Raj Bhavan premises. In 2012, Manohar Parrikar had taken oath as the CM at Campal ground after the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the House.
Other than Sawant, of the ministers sworn-in, only one is from the original BJP cadre – Nilesh Cabral – while the others were earlier either with the Congress or Independents.
While Godinho, a former Congressman had joined BJP just ahead of the 2017 polls, Rane had resigned as Congress MLA and joined BJP in April 2017.
Similarly, Shirodkar had joined BJP in early 2019, Monserrate, was part of ten Congress MLAs, who had defected to BJP in June 2019.
On the other hand, ex-Congress MLA Naik and Independents Khaunte and Gaude had joined the BJP just a month before the February 2022 polls.
A cabinet expansion is expected as there are three slots vacant in the cabinet. MLAs from the MGP and three Independent MLAs, who have extended support to BJP to form the government, are expected to be drafted into the cabinet. All five MLAs supporting the government were present for the swearing in ceremony.
Ponda taluka got the highest representation in the cabinet, with three MLAs – Ponda, Priol and Shiroda constituencies – getting cabinet berths. Tiswadi, Bardez, Quepem, Sattari and Mormugao got one Minister each.
For the first time, Salcete has no cabinet representation. In the second round Salcete might find a place.
Also, post Manohar Parrikar, Panjim got its first Minister after MLA Atanasio Monserrate, who represented the constituency for the second term, was administered oath. He replaces his wife MLA Jennifer Monserrate, who was part of Sawant cabinet from 2019-2022.
The crowd chanted Modi…Modi…Modi…as the Prime Minister entered the venue after landing in his special chopper at Dona Paula.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah could not be part of swearing in ceremony as he had to table ‘The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022’ in Parliament.
