Goa Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira resigns from state cabinet

Goa Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira on Wednesday resigned from the cabinet citing personal reasons.

Aleixo Sequeira, Goa's minister for Environment, Captain of Ports, Law and Judiciary and Legislative Affairs, on Wednesday resigned citing personal reasons.

File photo: Goa environment minister Aleixo Sequeira speaks at the 50th anniversary function organised by The Energy and Resources Institute. (X)

Sequeira handed over his resignation letter to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in the afternoon. The 68-year-old MLA from Nuvem had joined the Sawant-led cabinet in November 2023, replacing Nilesh Cabral.

"I am resigning from the cabinet on personal grounds," Sequeira told reporters at the government headquarters Mantralaya in Porvorim. He received wholehearted support from the chief minister during his tenure, he added.

Sequeira had contested the 2022 assembly election on Congress ticket, but later joined the BJP along with seven others in September 2022.

He began his political journey with the Youth Congress and rose through the party's ranks before being first elected to the assembly in 1994 from Loutolim constituency.

He retained it till 2007. After a delimitation in 2008, he contested and lost from Nuvem in 2012. He made a comeback by winning from there in 2022, defeating his nearest rival by over 4,300 votes.

Sequeira was deputy Speaker of the Assembly (1999) and a minister under CM Digambar Kamat (2007 to 2012).