Dr Pramod Sawant, the new Chief Minister of Goa, is an RSS man. The former speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, Sawant represents Sanquelim constituency in the Goa Legislative Assembly.
Sawant, 45, is an Ayurveda practitioner by profession. He obtained a Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery degree from the Ganga Education Society's Ayurvedic Medical College in Kolhapur and a postgraduate degree of Master of Social Work from the Tilak Maharashtra University at Pune.
His wife Sulakshana is a teacher of chemistry by profession. She is also a leader of the BJP and currently the President of the Goa unit of the BJP Mahila Morcha.
Even though the decision to appoint Sawant as the CM took some brainstorming, his name has been in the running for a few months now.
In October, Pramod Sawant had met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Nagpur to pitch his candidature for the next chief minister’s post.
According to reports, Sawant had also expressed his wishes to BJP national general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal about his aspiration for the chief minister’s post.
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In the view of Parrikar's failing health, BJP was reportedly in search of a new CM for Goa, who is young and dynamic and can lead the party in the next 15 years.
A TOI report from October says that apart from Sawant, the party had been considering BJP state unit president Vinay Tendulkar and health minister Vishwajit Rane for the post. However, since Sawant is the only BJP MLA who comes from the RSS cadre, his chances were higher than the others.
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