Goa public works department (PWD) minister Nilesh Cabral on Sunday tendered his resignation from the state cabinet to make way for the induction of Aleixo Sequeira who will be sworn in as a minister at 7pm this evening.
Sequeira joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the Congress along with seven others in September last year.
“Shri Nilesh Cabral has submitted his resignation from the Council of Ministers to the Hon’ble Chief Minister. Swearing-in of Shri Aleixo Sequeira in the cabinet is scheduled today at 7pm at Raj Bhavan,” the chief minister’s office (CMO) said in a statement issued on Sunday morning.
On Saturday, chief minister Pramod Sawant, when asked about the possibility of a reshuffle curtly replied: “When there is, I will let you know.”
Sawant said that he asked Cabral to resign “in the interest of the party” and that a cabinet berth was a promise made to him at the time of switching over to the BJP.
Sequeira was seen as being among those reluctant to join the BJP placing the ‘defection’ in peril as the breakaway group wouldn’t have met the necessary 2/3rds to avoid action under the anti-defection law.
{{/usCountry}}Sequeira was seen as being among those reluctant to join the BJP placing the ‘defection’ in peril as the breakaway group wouldn’t have met the necessary 2/3rds to avoid action under the anti-defection law.
{{/usCountry}}Eight Congress MLAs shifted to the BJP in September last year and despite speculation that at least three of them would be accommodated in the state cabinet, no decision to that effect was yet taken by the chief minister.
Among the aspirants for a place in the cabinet were former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat, former minister Michael Lobo and Aleixo Sequeira.