Pramod Sawant Takes Oath As Goa CM for 2nd Consecutive Term, PM Modi at Ceremony

The oath-taking ceremony was held at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee stadium, in the presence of Prime Minister Modi.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Sawant was sworn as Goa's chief minister (CM) for the second time on Monday, 28 March.

(Photo: Screenshot)

Video Producer: Mayank Chawla

Video Editors: Abhishek Sharma, Subroto Adhikari

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Sawant took oath as the Goa chief minister for the second term on Monday, 28 March.

Eight other leaders took their ministerial oaths at the oath-taking ceremony which was held at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee stadium in Panaji, Goa.

The ministers include:

• Vishwajeet Rane

• Mauvin Godinho

• Ravi Naik

• Nilesh Cabral

• Subhash Shirodkar

• Rohan Khaunte

• Atanasio Monserrate

• Govind Gaude

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president JP Nadda, and chief ministers of several BJP-rules states, among other dignitaries were present at the ceremony.

In light of their exit from the BJP ahead of the polls, Jennifer Monserrate, Filipe Rodrigues, Michael Lobo, and Deepak Pauskar were left out of the state government.

Around 10,000 people attended the function, which was broadcast across Goa via several news channels.

Earlier on Monday, Sawant handed over the list of ministers to Goa Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai, at Raj Bhavan.

"I'm thankful to the people of Goa for giving BJP another opportunity. Assembly will be starting tomorrow and budget will be presented the day after tomorrow. Our priority will be to restart mining in the state, generate employment and encourage the tourism sector," Sawant was quoted as saying by ANI.

In the recently-concluded Goa Assembly elections, the BJP won 20 out of 40 seats with a vote share of 33.3 percent.

Sawant had retained the Sanquelim Assembly seat for the third consecutive time by defeating Congress candidate Dharmesh Saglani and AAP's Manojkumar Ghadi in the Assembly polls.

This was the second time that the swearing-in ceremony of the state's chief minister was held outside Raj Bhavan premises.

Who is Pramod Sawant?

The three-time MLA Pramod Sawant, 48, is an Ayurveda medical practitioner. He was elected as the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly when the party had formed its government under Manohar Parrikar in 2017.

Dr Sawant was sworn-in as the chief minister for the first time in March 2019 following Parrikar's death, and amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.