Parrikar sworn-in as Goa chief minister

Manohar Parrikar was Friday sworn-in chief minister, heading a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government, at a ceremony here attended by top party leaders.

Governor K. Sankaranarayanan administered oath to Parrikar and cabinet ministers Dayanand Mandrekar, Mathany Saldanha, Laxmikant Parsenkar and Francis D’Souza.

The cabinet is expected to be expanded after the presentation of the budget later this month.

Two Christians were inducted in the ministry as the BJP’s rise to power has been attributed in significant measure to the six tickets given to Christian candidates out of the 28 nominees the party fielded in the March 3 polls.

Present on the occasion were BJP president Nitin Gadkari, and senior party leaders L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Shahanawaz Hussain, Gopinath Munde, Venkaiah Naidu, Sadanand Gowda and Arti Mehra.

The BJP-led coalition comprises of three Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) legislators and two Independents.

The BJP has a simple majority of 21 in the forty-member house.