For a second consecutive term, Pramod Sawant took oath as the Chief Minister of Goa at a grand swearing-in ceremony held at the Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee stadium in Taleigao on Monday. Eight other MLAs also took oath as Cabinet Ministers in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders. In a packed stadium with almost 10,000 people, the CM and the eight MLAs — Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godinho, Nilesh Cabral, Ravi Naik, Subhash Shirodkar, Govind Gaude and Rohan Khaunte — were administered the oath of office by Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai. While Cabinet portfolios are yet to be announced, the all-male group of ministers consist of four from the previous government — Rane, Godinho, Cabral and Gaude. Among the new entrants are former CM Ravi Naik, ex-minister Rohan Khaunte and Panaji MLA Atanasio 'Babush' Monserrate. His wife and Taleigao MLA Jennifer Monserrate was a minister in the previous government. While Sawant and Rane are both from the Maratha community, Naik is a prominent leader from the Bhandari community that accounts for majority of the Hindus in Goa. Godinho, Cabral and Monserrate are Catholics, Gaude belongs to the ST community while Khaunte is a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB). Naik had left the Congress to join the BJP ahead of the recently held elections. Khaunte and Gaude, who were both independent MLAs in the last Assembly, had joined the saffron party before the polls. Amid chants of Jai Shri Ram, beating of drums and the tootari, the crowd cheered for the BJP leaders on stage. In attendance were Prime Minister Modi, BJP national president J P Nadda, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Narendra Singh Tomar, Himachal Pradesh Governor Rajendra Alrekar and Chief Ministers Pushkar Singh Dhami of Uttarakhand, Basavraj Bommai of Karnataka and Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh. The BJP had won 20 of the 40 seats in Goa. Sawant, who had taken over the reins after the death of former defence minister and Goa CM Manohar Parrikar in 2019, formed the government with the support of three independent MLAs and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).
