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 GFP has withdrawn its support to the BJP government.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. The GFP was said to have been arm-twisting the BJP which decided to do away with them completely.
Ten Congress MLAs had on Wednesday joined the BJP, increasing the strength of the party to 27 in the 40-member House. With their crossover, Congress is reduced to five MLAs in the Goa assembly.
Emboldened by their support, Sawant decided to drop the GFP, a regional party that was instrumental in forming the Manohar Parrikar-led government in 2017 when Congress had emerged as the single-largest party but was trumped by the BJP in forming the government in the state.
This is the second cabinet reshuffle by Sawant since he took over as the chief minister three months ago.
Meanwhile, outgoing deputy chief minister of Goa Vijay Sardesai said the induction of the 10 MLAs of the Congress into the BJP was the "death of the legacy" of late chief minister Manohar Parrikar- the tallest saffron leader in the coastal state credited for forming the coalition government in 2017 by bringing together regional parties.
"Parrikar died twice...Once on March 17 physically while today it is the death of his political legacy," Sardesai told a gathering held near Parrikar memorial at Miramar.
Sardesai announced that the GFP was "withdrawing" its support to the BJP- led government.
He alleged that the ruling government wanted to finish Parrikar's legacy, which won't be allowed. "We supported the Pramod Sawant government because I had given my word to Parrikar that the support to the government will continue in any circumstances. We now feel cheated and ditched by the NDA," he said.