Ex-CM Digambar Kamat, Tawadkar to join Goa cabinet; Sequeira resigns

Panaji, Aug 20 (PTI) Former chief minister Digambar Kamat and present assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar would be inducted in the Goa cabinet on Thursday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said.

The announcement by Sawant, who returned from Delhi late Wednesday evening, came hours after minister Aleixo Sequeira resigned citing personal reasons, and Tawadkar said he would resign as Speaker.

"Both of them (Kamat and Tawadkar) would be sworn in at 12 noon at Raj Bhavan," Sawant told reporters at the airport.

Earlier in the day, Sequeira, minister for Environment, Law and Judiciary and Legislative Affairs, tendered his resignation.

When asked by reporters in Margao, his constituency, Kamat indirectly confirmed that he would join the cabinet. "See you at Raj Bhavan tomorrow," he said.

Kamat, 71, headed the Congress government in Goa from 2007 to 2012 before the party was ousted by Manohar Parrikar-led BJP in state elections. In 2022, he joined the BJP along with a few other Congress MLAs.

The Pramod Sawant-led cabinet already has one vacancy after Art and Culture, and Sports and Youth Affairs minister Govind Gaude was dropped in June.

In his resignation letter, Sequeira, also a former Congressman, said he was compelled to take this decision due to personal reasons, and thanked CM Sawant for his support.

Tawadkar, BJP MLA from Canacona, said he wanted to continue as Speaker, but will resign owing to the party's directive.

The BJP wanted him to serve as a minister, he told reporters. PTI RPS KRK