Goa Assembly election results 2022: Pramod Sawant takes oath as chief minister for second straight term

Dr Pramod Sawant, who led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to victory in Goa, has been sworn in as the chief minister for a second term on Monday.

Goa governor P S Sreedharan Pillai administered the oath of office to Sawant at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Goa’s Taleigão.

Pramod Sawant takes oath as Goa Chief Minister for the 2nd consecutive term pic.twitter.com/eaQVS46583

— ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2022

Sawant’s swearing-in ceremony was a big-ticket event — the BJP top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president JP Nadda and other chief ministers such as Manohar Lal Khattar and Basavaraj Bommai were in attendance.

PM Narendra Modi attends the oath-taking ceremony of CM-designate Pramod Sawant, at Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in Goa. pic.twitter.com/4SoEwPPj5e

— ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2022

Massive security arrangements were put in place for the event; over 2,000 Goa Police personnel were deployed along with drones and other technologies. The Coast Guard and the Navy was also put on alert for the event.

The swearing-in ceremony also saw Valpoi MLA Vishwajit Rane, Ponda MLA Ravi Naik, Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho and Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral taking their oaths.

Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, Pramod Sawant tweeted pictures of himself, offering prayers. “Offered prayers to the Almighty as we continue on our journey to serve the people of Goa. (sic),” he wrote in a tweet.

Offered prayers to the Almighty as we continue on our journey to serve the people of Goa. pic.twitter.com/r5SVTYpLHj

— Dr. Pramod Sawant (@DrPramodPSawant) March 28, 2022

Sawant, 48, is widely known to be the protege of former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

As per an ANI news report, Sawant steadily rose in the ranks of the state unit. He first unsuccessfully contested the by-elections in 2008 on a BJP ticket from the Pale Assembly seat.

Sawant continued to work in the shadow of Parrikar and was back in the electoral fray in the 2012 Assembly elections. He tasted success from the Sanquelim Assembly constituency and he repeated his success in 2017 too. Following this, he was rewarded with the post of the Speaker in the Goa Assembly.

In this year’s Assembly elections, he once again won his constituency and also led the BJP to victory, bagging 20 of the 40 Assembly seats. Three independent MLAs and two legislators of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) have extended support to the BJP. Speculation was rife that the BJP would replace Sawant with Vishwajit Rane.

With inputs from agencies

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