PANAJI: Drawing curtains on the long-awaited cabinet reshuffle, former Chief Minister and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and ex Speaker and Canacona MLA Ramesh Tawadkar were inducted into the Pramod Sawant-led cabinet on Thursday.
At a ceremony hosted at the Raj Bhavan, Governor Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju administered the oath of office and secrecy to BJP legislators in the presence of the Chief Minister.
While one ministerial post is vacant after Govind Gaude was dropped from the cabinet on June 18, another minister, Aleixo Sequeira, resigned on Wednesday, citing personal reasons.
All eyes are now set on portfolio allocation, as the Chief Minister is expected to lower his burden by distributing the departments he has been holding for quite some time now.
Kamat, 71, previously served as Goa’s Chief Minister from 2007 to 2012 under a Congress-led government. He later joined the BJP in 2022 along with a group of Congress MLAs, strengthening the saffron party’s hold in the Assembly.
57-year-old Tawadkar, who resigned from the Speaker’s post ahead of his induction, had served in the past cabinet held by then CM Manohar Parrikar in 2012-17. After facing a defeat in the 2017 election as an Independent candidate, he was re-elected in the 2022 elections on the BJP symbol.
