Pramod Sawant Sworn in as Goa Chief Minister
BJP overcomes initial hurdles and successfully parleys with regional allies, to elect Pramod Sawant as the next Chief Minister of Goa.
The Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar died on 17th March 2019. After his death, in the State Assembly the Congress had 14 MLAs whereas the BJP had only 12 MLAs. The Congress approached the Governor of Goa to stake a claim to form the new government, however they were not granted an appointment. The Congress accused the Governor of allowing the BJP to carry on horse-trading and ignoring their request to form the government even though they were the single largest party.
The CM swearing-in ceremony had to be postponed two times since the BJP was trying very hard to convince the other parties. The negotiations were headed by the Union Minister for Road Transport and Shipping Nitin Gadkari. He tried to convince the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the Goa Forward Party (GFP) to support BJP’s CM candidate. They finally succeeded and now the BJP has a majority of 21 MLAs which include 3 MLAs from the MGP party, 3 from the GFP party and 3 independent MLAs.
The BJP leaders along with Nitin Gadkari met the Governor and formed the new government in Goa. They successfully elected Pramod Sawant who was the Assembly Speaker, to be the next Chief Minister of Goa.
