Hitting a ‘sixer’: Pramod Sawant makes history by completing six years in row as Goa CM
Panaji, Mar 19 (PTI) Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant completed six consecutive years in office on Wednesday, becoming the only CM in the state to occupy the top post for this uninterrupted period, surpassing the records of his predecessor Manohar Parrikar and former CM Digambar Kamat.
Sawant, 51, who represents the Sankhalim assembly constituency in North Goa, is currently serving his second term as the chief minister of the coastal state. He first took oath as the CM on March 19, 2019 after the death of Parrikar.
Sawant was sworn in as the chief minister in the wee hours on this day six years ago after Parrikar’s last rites were conducted.
Sawant, who was 45 years old then, was serving as the Speaker of the Goa legislative assembly at that time.
Under his leadership, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the state assembly elections after clinching 20 out of the total 40 seats, and he went on to take oath as the CM for the second time on March 28, 2022.
Although Sawant has achieved the feat of occupying the top post for six successive years, it was Parrikar who helmed the state for the longest period of close to nine years — eight years and 349 days to be precise — with a gap in between as he took oath of the top post thrice – in 2000, 2012 and 2017.
Sawant has presented five state budgets till date and is set to table the sixth budget on March 26 during the upcoming assembly session starting on March 24.
After Goa became a state in 1987, then Congress leader Digambar Kamat was the only chief minister to complete a full five-year tenure from 2007 to 2012.
After the statehood, Goa saw some leaders having short stints as the state chief minister. While Ravi Naik was the chief minister for just six days in April 1994 before his government was toppled by late Dr Wilfred D’Souza in a political coup, Churchill Alemao served as the CM for 18 days in 1990.
Parrikar’s second stint as the CM got interrupted in 2014 when he was elevated to the post of Union Defence Minister. If Sawant completes his current five-year tenure, he would be the second one to do so for the state of Goa after Kamat.
