Panaji: After four years of crossing over from Congress to BJP, Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar will enter the Goa cabinet Saturday, fulfilling a ministerial promise that helped seal his defection along with seven other Congress MLAs in Sept 2022.“Amonkar will be inducted into the cabinet on Saturday,” chief minister Pramod Sawant told TOI.This will be Sawant’s third cabinet reshuffle ahead of the assembly elections scheduled for Feb 2027.Amonkar will fill the berth lying vacant since last year after the death of former agriculture minister and Ponda MLA Ravi Naik. As a first-time MLA, he will have the shortest tenure as a minister before the polls.After initially refusing a corporation post and continuing to demand a cabinet berth, Amonkar was appointed chairperson of the Sewerage and Infrastructural Development Corporation of Goa Ltd a year ago.With his induction, Mormugao taluka will have two ministers, including transport minister Mauvin Godinho. BJP has three MLAs in Mormugao, and retaining its stronghold in the taluka could be another reason to bring Amonkar into the cabinet, a political observer said.The reshuffle had been on the table for months, but BJP could not take a final decision. When discussions began, Calangute MLA Michael Lobo’s name was also considered, but Amonkar’s name was cleared after Lobo showed reluctance to join the cabinet.Amonkar will be the third Congress defector to join the Sawant cabinet. Earlier, Nuvem MLA Aleixo Sequeira and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat were inducted.During the first reshuffle in Nov 2023, Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral resigned from the cabinet to pave the way for Sequeira. Sequeira, who was part of Sawant’s cabinet for nearly 22 months, resigned in Aug 2025 to make way for a second reshuffle.During the second reshuffle, Sawant inducted former chief minister Kamat and former speaker Ramesh Tawadkar into the cabinet.On June 18, 2025, Sawant had dropped former art and culture minister Govind Gaude from his cabinet after he levelled serious allegations of corruption in the tribal welfare department, which comes under Sawant.
