Pramod Sawant to take oath as Chief Minister of Goa today, PM Narendra Modi to attend ceremony

Pramod Sawant will take oath as the Chief Minister of Goa for the second time in a row today in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 20 seats in the recently concluded 40-member Goa Assembly elections.

Congress had managed to win 11 seats and Aam Aadmi Party 2 seats. Goa Forward Party and Revolutionary Goans Party got 1-1 seats each. Apart from this, 2 and 3 independent MLAs of MGP won. The swearing-in ceremony will be held at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in the capital Panaji at 11 am, with more than 10,000 people expected to attend it.

A government spokesperson said that apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will also be present in this ceremony. The swearing-in ceremony will be broadcast through various news channels in the state. Apart from the Chief Minister, there can be a total of 11 ministers in the Goa cabinet.

Read | Pramod Sawant to take oath as Goa CM on March 28

Second time oath as Goa CM

This will be the second time that Pramod Sawant will take oath as CM of Goa outside the Raj Bhavan complex. The BJP had emerged as the single largest party in the House when Manohar Parrikar was sworn in as Chief Minister in 2012 at the Campal Ground in Panaji, the state capital.

Officials had earlier told that Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai has called a two-day session of the new assembly from March 29, during which Pramod Sawant will have to seek a trust vote. He said a new speaker of the assembly would also be elected during the session, which is expected to pass bills and carry out several legislative tasks, including vote on account.

The Congress-led opposition has nominated MLA Alexo Sequeira for the post of president. In the recently concluded state elections, the BJP won 20 seats, one short of the majority in the 40-member House.

Pramod Sawant became CM after the demise of Manohar Parrikar

BJP has been supported by 3 independent MLAs and 2 MLAs of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). Pramod Sawant (48) is an MLA from Sankhalim in North Goa. In the year 2017, when the BJP formed its government under the leadership of Manohar Parrikar, he was elected the Speaker of the Assembly.

He took oath as the Chief Minister of Goa for the first time in March 2019 after the untimely demise of Manohar Parrikar. Pramod Sawant is an Ayurveda doctor by profession.

(With Agency Inputs)