Swearing-in of Pramod Sawant as Goa CM on Mar 28; PM Modi to attend ceremony

The swearing-in ceremony of Pramod Sawant as Goa's chief minister will be held on March 28 and prominent BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will attend the event.

Talking to reporters on Tuesday, Sawant said the ceremony would be held at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee stadium near here on March 28 at 11 am. Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J P Nadda, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and chief ministers of seven BJP-ruled states would attend the ceremony, he said.

The BJP has already submitted a letter of support of 25 MLAs to Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai, who has invited them to form the next government in the coastal state.

Three-time MLA Sawant will continue as the chief minister of Goa for a second term, the BJP had announced on Monday after he was unanimously elected the legislature party head.

The BJP, which won 20 seats in the 40-member Assembly, just one short of the majority mark of 21, has staked claim to form the new government for a third straight term with the support of two MLAs of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three Independent legislators.

Sawant (48) is an MLA from Sankhalim in North Goa. He was elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly when the BJP formed its government under the leadership of Manohar Parrikar in 2017.

He was sworn-in as the chief minister for the first time in March 2019 after Parrikar's death.

Sawant, an Ayurveda medical practitioner, was at the helm when the coastal state faced the COVID-19 pandemic along with other parts of the country.