Panaji: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Sawant, who took oath for a second straight term as the chief minister of Goa earlier on March 28, expanded his cabinet on Saturday.
Sawant inducted three more MLAs, including Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Sudin Dhavalikar, as ministers, PTI reported.
Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai administered the oath of office to the three new ministers, including BJP MLAs Nilkant Halarnkar and Subhash Faldesai.
The Chief Minister was present along with other members of his cabinet during the swearing-in ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan here.
There are currently 12 members in the Goa Cabinet, including Sawant himself, with the addition of three ministers.
Dhavalikar was a minister in the governments led by late Manohar Parrikar as well as the one led by Sawant between 2017 till 2019.
The MGP leader was, however, dropped from the cabinet ahead of the last Lok Sabha elections.
Halarnkar, who had earlier in 2019 shifted his political affiliation to the BJP along with nine other MLAs, was a minister in the erstwhile Congress-led government.
Faldesai, however, has been included in the Go Cabinet for the first time.
The recently concluded polls saw the BJP winning 20 seats in the 40-member Goa Assembly. The Indian National Congress (INC) won as many as 11 seats.
The saffron party, which emerged as the single largest party in Goa, formed the government with the support of three independent MLAs and two legislators of the MGP
(With Agency Inputs)