Daijiworld Media Network – Panaji

Panaji, Aug 21: Goa is set for a political reshuffle as former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and current Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar will be inducted into the state cabinet on Thursday at noon at Raj Bhavan. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant confirmed the development on Wednesday evening after returning from Delhi.

The announcement came hours after senior minister Aleixo Sequeira submitted his resignation from the cabinet, citing personal reasons. Sequeira, who represented the Nuvem constituency, was handling portfolios including Environment, Law and Judiciary, and Legislative Affairs.

Kamat, who served as Chief Minister between 2007 and 2012, had joined the BJP in 2022 along with a group of Congress MLAs, strengthening the ruling party in the Assembly. Tawadkar, BJP legislator from Canacona, will step down as Speaker to take charge as a minister in the reshuffled cabinet.

With Sequeira’s exit and a vacancy already created after the removal of Govind Gaude in June, the new cabinet will see Kamat and Tawadkar being accommodated as part of the BJP’s strategy to maintain political balance.

Sequeira, who began his political career with the Youth Congress and served as Deputy Speaker in 1999, was earlier a minister in the Digambar Kamat-led government from 2007 to 2012. Though elected on a Congress ticket in 2022, he later joined the BJP with seven other legislators.