Aleixo to resign as min today; Kamat, Tawadkar to be inducted in cabinet

Panaji: Environment minister Aleixo Sequeira, who has been a part of chief minister Pramod Sawant’s cabinet for nearly 22 months, is set to resign on Wednesday, clearing the way for a minor cabinet reshuffle.Former chief minister and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat will be inducted into the cabinet in Sequeira’s place, while speaker of the Goa legislative assembly Ramesh Tawadkar will be inducted in place of former art and culture minister Govind Gaude, who was dropped recently from the cabinet.Sequeira on Tuesday held a meeting with his department officers and informed them that he will resign as minister. Both Kamat and Sequeira joined BJP together in 2022.Earlier, Kamat, who was part of BJP, left the party in 2005, thus pulling down the govt of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar. Kamat then joined Congress, and served as chief minister from 2007 to 2012.Sequeira, also a former Congress MLA, was among the eight who joined BJP in Sept 2022. BJP promised the Nuvem MLA a cabinet berth as an incentive to lure him to join the group of eight Congressmen to complete the merger.

Sequeira was initially reluctant to join BJP as his political career could face hurdles.On June 18, Sawant dropped Gaude from his cabinet after the minister made serious allegations of corruption in the tribal welfare department, which comes under the chief minister.Sawant on Tuesday held a meeting with MLAs and briefed some aspiring MLAs who were hoping to become ministers that he had decided to induct Kamat and Tawadkar into the cabinet.After briefing the MLAs, Sawant left for Delhi to attend a GST meeting, and is likely to return to Goa on late Wednesday night or Thursday morning, after which the new ministers will be sworn in.In Nov 2023, Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral resigned from the cabinet to pave the way for Sequeira’s induction into the cabinet.In June, Sawant met Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi to discuss the cabinet reshuffle and left the decision in the matter with central leadership. The Sawant-led coalition govt completed three years in March 2025.