Pramod Sawant sworn in as Goa CM for 2nd consecutive term

Panaji, Mar 28: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Sawant on Monday took oath as the Chief Minister of Goa for the second consecutive term at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee stadium. Vishwajeet Rane, Mauvin Godinho, Ravi Naik, Nilesh Cabral, Subhash Shirodkar, Rohan Khaunte, Atanasio Monserrate and Govind Gaude were administered oath of office along with the CM by Governor PS Sreedharan.

The event was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and other Ministers. BJP national president JP Nadda and Chief Ministers of several BJP-ruled states including Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana), Shivraj Singh Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh), Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand) and others also attended the ceremony.

Pramod Sawant led the BJP to win 20 seats in the recently concluded elections to the 40-member Goa Assembly. The party enjoys the support of three Independents and two Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) legislators. This is the third consecutive government of the BJP in the coastal state.

In 2012, Manohar Parrikar had taken oath as the CM at Campal ground in the state capital Panaji after the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the House.

Sawant (48) is an MLA from Sankhalim in North Goa. He was elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly when the BJP formed its government under the leadership of Manohar Parrikar in 2017.

He was sworn-in as the chief minister for the first time in March 2019 after Parrikar's death.

Sawant, an Ayurveda medical practitioner, was at the helm when the coastal state faced the COVID-19 pandemic along with other parts of the country.