Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Goa's caretaker Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will take oath as the Chief Minister of the coastal state on March 28. Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai will administer him the oath of office and secrecy at 11 am at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee stadium in Panaji.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Sawant, who took over the reins after the demise of Manohar Parrikar in 2019. Besides PM Modi, Union Minister Amit Shah, party's national president JP Nadda and others including the CMs of BJP-ruled states are likely to attend the event.
"I have invited PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda," Sawant had said on Monday.
Sawant, 48, was elected as the legislature party leader on Monday in the presence of the party's central observer Narendra Singh Tomar and the party's poll in charge for Goa Devendra Fadnavis in Panaji.
"Vishwajit Rane proposed the name of Pramod Sawant as the Leader of the Legislative Party and everyone unanimously elected him as the Leader. He will be the Leader of the Legislative Party for the next 5 years," Tomar told reporters on Monday after the meeting.
This would be the BJP's third consecutive government in Goa and Sawant's second term. The party had won elections in 2012 under the leadership of Manohar Parrikar. He had to resign in November 2014 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed him as the Defence Minister. He was succeeded by Laxmikant Parsekar.
After 2017 polls, when the Goa Legislative Assembly was delivered with a fractured mandate, the BJP managed to form an alliance government despite emerging as the second largest party with 13 seats in the 40-member House. The BJP had then sent Parrikar back to Goa to lead the government. When Parrikar died in March 2019, the BJP leadership handpicked Sawant to sit at the helm of affairs in the state.
Sawant won the election from the Sanquelim seat by a thin margin of 666 votes against Congress rival Dharmesh Saglani.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party in the recently concluded state Assembly polls, winning 20 seats, just one less than the halfway mark in the 40-member Legislative Assembly. The saffron party enjoys the support of two Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three Independent legislators. The Congress was decimated to 11 seats.
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