the goan I network
PANAJI
After multiple twists and turns through Monday and rescheduling of the swearing-in ceremony twice, Speaker Pramod Sawant was finally administered the oath of office and secrecy as Goa’s 11th Chief Minister at the Raj Bhavan in the wee hours of Tuesday by Governor Mridula Sinha.
The 46-year-old Ayurveda practitioner took the oath in Konkani and the warrant of appointment was read out by Chief Secretary Parimal Rai.
Also sworn-in were the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party leader Sudin Dhavalikar and Goa Forward Party leader Vijai Sardesai. They were appointed as Deputy CMs.
Also sworn-in ministers were: Manohar Ajgaonkar, Rohan Khaunte, Govind Gaude, Vinoda Palienkar, Jayesh Salgaonkar, Mauvin Godinho, Vishwajit Rane, Milind Naik and Nilesh Cabral. Michael Lobo staged a walkout midway, since his name was not on the list of those taking oath.
Sawant’s name was cleared and forwarded to Sinha with letters of support from the allies and independents after marathon negotiations and multiple meetings of the ruling coalition legislators with Central BJP emissaries since midnight on Sunday.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who was later joined in the negotiations by BJP national president Amit Shah, finally broke the leadership logjam to drum up backing for the party’s pick -- Pramod Sawant.
But this was not before the two coalition partners -- Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and the Goa Forward Party -- resorted to some hard-ball negotiations and extracted for their respective leaders the coveted deputy chief minister’s post.
Accordingly, Dhavalikar and Sardesai were also sworn-in as Deputy Chief Ministers at the post-midnight ceremony after multiple breakdowns in the negotiations which began at midnight yesterday at a Dona Paula resort where Gadkari was stationed since he arrived on Sunday night.
Meanwhile, with the swearing-in ceremony of the new CM delayed by more than six hours after the cremation of Parrikar, the Congress trained its guns on the governor, saying it “strongly condemns” her undemocratic action of not allowing the single largest party to form the government but allowing the BJP to cry on horse-trading.
In a press release, Congress chief spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said the Governor is acting as an agent of the
BJP.
“This will be remembered as the darkest day in Indian democracy where there is vacuum in the government for more than 24 hours after the declaration of death of the Chief Minister,” Kawthankar added.
