Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday reshuffled his Cabinet and inducted four new Ministers, including three of the 10 Congress lawmakers who switched to the BJP earlier this week. Michael Lobo, the deputy Speaker of the Goa Assembly, was the fourth Minister.
The shifting of Congress MLAs to the BJP has given the ruling party enough elbow room to eject taciturn allies and take a firm control of the dispensation in Goa.
However, the three legislators from the coalition partner, Goa Forward Party (GFP), refused to step down asking the Chief Minister to sack them instead. Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai, Vinod Palienkar and Jayesh Salgaocar are the Ministers from the GFP, besides Independent legislator, Rohan Khaunte, who were told to quit by the Chief Minister.
GFP has withdrawn its support to the BJP Government. Lobo, who resigned as the deputy Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly, and the three MLAs — Chandrakant Kavlekar, Jeniffer Monserratte, Philip Neri Rodrigues — were sworn in as new Ministers.
Goa Governor Mridula Sinha administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new Ministers at a ceremony held at Raj Bhavan in the afternoon.
Prior to the swearing-in, the Chief Minister issued a notification dropping all GFP Ministers.