Team Goemkarponn
CANACONA: After an eight-year wait, Canacona has got a cabinet berth again with MLA Ramesh Tawadkar sworn in as a Minister on Thursday. He resigned as Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly earlier in the day before taking oath at Raj Bhavan in the presence of Governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai and Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant. Former Chief Minister and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat was also inducted.
Hundreds of Tawadkar’s supporters travelled to Dona Paula to witness the swearing-in and later lined up to greet him. On his return to Canacona, Tawadkar was welcomed at Karmalghat and later at his Ruby Residency office, where well-wishers continued to pour in until late evening.
Tawadkar, who hails from a humble farming family and once worked as a Physical Education teacher, first entered the Assembly in 2005 after winning a by-election in the then Poinguinim constituency. He retained his seat in 2007 and again in 2012 from the newly delimited Canacona constituency, when he was inducted as Minister handling portfolios including Sports & Youth Affairs, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Tribal Welfare.
After resigning in 2017, Canacona had no ministerial representation for two terms, with then MLA Isidore Fernandes serving as Deputy Speaker in the Assembly’s last tenure. Returning as MLA in 2022, Tawadkar was unanimously elected Speaker before stepping down this week to rejoin the cabinet.
Sources said portfolios for the newly inducted ministers — Tawadkar and Kamat — are likely to be announced by Monday, with Chief Minister Sawant expected to carry out a minor reshuffle.
