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, taking the council of ministers in Goa to its full strength of 12.
At a ceremony hosted at Raj Bhavan on Thursday noon, Governor Pusapati Ashok Gajapati Raju administered the oath of office and secrecy to Kamat and Tawadkar in Konkani. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and his cabinet members were present during the ceremony.
While one ministerial post had fallen vacant after then Minister for Art and Culture Govind Gaude was dropped from the cabinet on June 18, another minister, Aleixo Sequeira, resigned on Wednesday, citing personal reasons -- thus paving way for induction of two new ministers. Both the ministers are expected to take charge of the office in the next two days, during which portfolio allocation is also expected.
For 71-year old Kamat, this marks a return to cabinet after a 13-year gap. He last held power from 2007-2012 as the chief minister under Congress regime, before being succeeded by Manohar Parrikar. It is to be noted that Kamat, is so far, the only chief minister to complete a full five-year term.
It has been Kamat’s longest spell out of ministerial office ever since he was elected as an MLA for the first time on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket in 1994. He first became a minister in the Parrikar cabinet in 2000 before he defected to the Congress in 2005.
After winning on Congress ticket in 2022 Assembly elections, Kamat, re-joined BJP in September 2022 along with a group of seven Congress MLAs, strengthening the saffron party’s hold in the Assembly.
“I am happy that I will now have more strength to work for the common man in this State. I am returning to the cabinet after 13 years. I will get an opportunity to work even harder than before. God and the central leadership have given me this opportunity,” Kamat said minutes before he was sworn-in as minister.
Fifty-seven-year old Tawadkar, resigned from the Speaker’s post ahead of his induction. He submitted his resignation to the Legislature Secretary.
Tawadkar had served in the past in the coalition cabinet held by then CM Manohar Parrikar in 2012-14 and later under Laxmikant Parsekar. He quit the BJP in 2017 after being denied a ticket and faced a defeat as an Independent candidate. He re-joined BJP and was re-elected in 2022 elections.
Tawadkar said that he regretted not being able to complete a full-term as the Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly. “I have to take this decision with a heavy heart because the party has given me a different responsibility with a view on the 2017 assembly elections. For this, the party has given me this new responsibility,” he said.
Tawadkar said that he has gained respect from both, ruling as well as the Opposition, for being fair and giving equal opportunities to everyone. “I am proud to have served as Speaker with support of all members. Now as I take oath as minister, I will work at the Antyodaya level to serve the people of Goa,” he said.
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 apart from reassigning the portfolios held by his other cabinet members.
