Panaji: Goa's year-long cabinet vacancy was filled on Saturday, when BJP MLA Sankalp Amonkar took oath as a minister in the Pramod Sawant government.
Governor P. Ashok Gajapathy Raju administered the oath of office and secrecy at Lok Bhavan in Dona Paula, with Chief Minister Sawant and other cabinet colleagues present.
The berth had been empty since the death of former agriculture minister Ravi Naik, who died of a cardiac arrest on October 15 last year at 79. Naik had served twice as chief minister and was elected to the assembly seven times.
Amonkar won Mormugao in 2022 on a Congress ticket, defeating three-time BJP MLA Milind Naik by 1,941 votes. He joined the BJP with seven other Congress MLAs in September 2022.
Before the switch he was a vice-president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee and held posts in the party's youth wing. After joining the BJP he was made chairman of the Goa Sewage and Infrastructural Development Corporation.
The Sawant ministry had been running with one vacancy in its 12-member Council of Ministers.
Amonkar's induction is expected to strengthen the BJP in the Mormugao region ahead of the 2027 assembly election. Goa has 40 assembly seats and the Sawant government currently has a majority.
Portfolio allocation is yet to be announced. Amonkar's 2022 win was one of a handful the Congress took in a state that has changed ruling party every five years. His move to the BJP two months later left the party with fewer MLAs than it had won.