Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pramod Sawant on Monday took oath as the chief minister of Goa for the second term.
In the recently held state elections, the BJP had won 20 seats in the 40-member Assembly and secured support from two MLAs of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and three Independents. Sawant had won the Sanquelim constituency by a narrow margin of 666 votes.
He became the chief minister for the first time after the death of Manohar Parrikar in 2019.
Vishwajit P Rane, Mauvin Godinho, Ravi Naik, Nilesh Cabral, Subhash Shirodkar, Rohan Khaunte, Govind Gaute and Atanasio Monserrate took oath as ministers in the state Cabinet, ANI reported.
Rane was one of the leaders who was in contention for the chief minister’s post before the BJP Legislature Party decided to retain Sawant. Meanwhile, Monserrate had defeated Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar on the Panaji seat in the Assembly elections. Utpal Parrikar had contested as an Independent candidate after being denied a ticket by the BJP.
Over 10,000 people were present at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, where the swearing-in ceremony took place, reported The Times of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP chief JP Nadda also attended the event.
On Sunday, Director General of Police Indradev Shukla had said 2,000 personnel have been deployed to maintain security and special teams have also arrived from outside, reported ANI. Coast Guard and the Indian Navy are also on alert, he added.
On March 21, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar had announced that Sawant will continue as the chief minister. On the same day, Sawant met Goa Governor PS Sreedharan to formally stake claim to form the government.
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