The Goa government, led by new Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, will face a floor test in the state Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. Governor Mridula Sinha has convened a special session of the Assembly at 11.30 am, to be presided over by Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo, The Hindu reported.
Sawant, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, was sworn in as chief minister around 2 am on Tuesday, hours after his predecessor Manohar Parrikar was cremated at Miramar beach in Panaji. An 11-member Cabinet was also sworn in, including two deputies for Sawant from coalition parties – Sudin Dhavlikar of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Vijai Sardesai of the Goa Forward Party. The Cabinet included all the ministers under Parrikar’s rule.
Sawant on Tuesday said: “My priority is to ensure that governance reaches to door step of each and every Goan; my aim is to fulfil all the pending dreams of Parrikar.”
The 40-member Goa Assembly had two vacancies by the end of last year after the resignations of two BJP MLAs who moved to the Congress. This year, it has lost two BJP MLAs – Francis D’Souza died in February, and Parrikar this week – bringing the strength down to 36. The Congress has 14 of these seats, the BJP 12, Goa Forward Party 3, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party 3, Nationalist Congress Party has one, and three are independent MLAs.
Even though the Congress had won the most seats in elections in 2017, the BJP had moved faster to secure support from both the Goa Forward Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, as well as the independents.
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