A siren giving a warning about tsunami erroneously started playing from the Early Warning Dissemination System at Porvorim near Panaji, triggering panic among the local residents, an official said on Thursday.
Vishwajit Rane, who had unsuccessfully lobbied for the CM's post, has been given crucial Health and Town and Country Planning Portfolios along with Urban Development, Women and Child, and Forest departments.
The biggest jolt the Congress came in 2019 when a group of its 10 MLAs, led by then leader of opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, left the party together and joined the ruling BJP.
Goa Congress chief Subhash Shirodkar on Saturday resigned, owning responsibility for the party's defeat in the recently held Legislative Assembly election. Shirodkar handed his resignation to party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. He and former chief minister Digambar Kamat were in Delhi to submit a report on the party's performance in Goa. Shirodkar had said two days ago that he would be stepping down, taking the responsibility for the drubbing.
In the 2017 state assembly polls, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats.
Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and all Congress members in his cabinet figure in the party's first list of 22 candidates for the March 3 assembly polls, which was announced in Panaji on Saturday. The list contains two new faces, but the party has sprung a surprise by denying a ticket to Victoria Fernandes, the Congress' lone woman legislator. Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Subhash Shirodkar said the second and final list of 11 nominees will be announced on Sunday
With this, the Congress's strength in the 40-member assembly reduced to 14 from 16.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi's public rally in Goa on Saturday will be her first ever since her surgery in August, a senior Congress leader said in Panaji on Friday.
The Association of Democratic Reforms said Goa has set a unique record, which is "unparalleled" in the history of Indian democracy.
Sawant took the oath in Konkani language.
The opposition party had earlier written to Sinha, staking claim to form the government on Friday and then again on Sunday.
The death of the former defence minister, who represented the Panaji assembly seat, will also necessitate a fourth bypoll in Goa.
A BJP leader, on condition of anonymity, said all party MLAs have been asked not to leave the state.
While the Congress currently has 14 MLAs, down from 16 after Sopte and Shirodkar left it to join the BJP, the latter has 13 MLAs.
Besides 11 members from BJP, three each from the Goa Forward Party, the MGP and independents supported Sawant during the head count conducted in the House.
It is a record that the saffron party has created, where the majority of its legislators belonged to the minority community.
In the last two-and-a half years, the Congress has lost 13 of its MLAs to the BJP which now enjoys an overwhelming majority in the assembly.
If pandemic (mis)management threatened to dominate Goa's electoral discourse, the BJP is up against a deeper structural issue in its organisation, created by the fact that a majority of the legislature party and the ministerial council is made up of Congress defectors, disparagingly referred to by the Opposition as "imports". Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
The two would-be Dy CMs are Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Sudin Dhavalikar.
Sawant on Tuesday said his government had sought a floor test on Wednesday to prove its strength in the assembly.
'If the charge is not given immediately, we will contest all upcoming elections, that is (Assembly) by-election and Lok Sabha polls, by fielding our candidates against official candidate of the government'
As per the power-sharing arrangement, Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Sudin Dhavalikar will be the deputy chief ministers.
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