Sawant, 8 ministers take oath in Goa, Rane among 4 dropped

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Three-time MLA Pramod Sawant, who led the Bharatiya Janata Party to win 20 seats in the recently concluded elections to the 40-member Goa assembly, was sworn in as the state’s chief minister for the second time on Monday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries.

Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai administered the oath to Sawant (48) and eight other BJP MLAs as cabinet ministers in a ceremony held at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee stadium at Bambolim near Panaji, four km from the Raj Bhavan. Over 10,000 people were present during the function.

Prime Minister Modi, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Shripad Naik, BJP national president J P Nadda, Himachal Pradesh governor Rajendra Arlekar (who hails from Goa) and Maharashtra’s former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was the BJP’s Goa election in-charge, were among those who attended the event.

This was the second time that Goa’s chief minister was sworn in outside the Raj Bhavan. In 2012, Manohar Parrikar had taken oath as CM at a ground in Campal area of the state capital Panaji after the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the House.