All you need to know about the Goa Council of Ministers

Short profiles of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and members of his Cabinet.

Goa Governor Mridula Sinha with newly sworn-in Goa Cabinet led by Manohar Parrikar (fifth from left). The other Ministers are: (from left to right) Pandurang Madkaikar, Manohar Azgaonkar, Francis D’Souza, Ramakrishna Dhavlikar, Vijay Sardesai, Vinod Palyekar, Jayesh Salgaonkar and Govind Gawade.

Manohar Parrikar has taken over as Goa Chief Minister on March 14, 2017, along with a nine-member team.

Short profiles of Mr. Parrikar and members of his Cabinet.

Manohar Parrikar

A metallurgical engineer from IIT Bombay and a staunch RSS man, Mr. Parrikar entered the Goa Assembly in 1994 and served as Chief Minister thrice before this current stint. Curiously he never completed his three terms (October 24, 2000 - February 27, 2002, June 5, 2002 - January 29, 2005 and March 9, 2012- November 8, 2014). The last term was cut short due to his elevation to the Union Cabinet as Defence Minister.

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Govind Gawde (Independent)

Govind Gawde won the Priol seat as a BJP-backed independent, defeating MGP stalwart Deepak Dhavalikar.

Pandurang Madkaikar (BJP)

A Congress MLA in the last Assembly, Pandurang Madkaikar joined the BJP only in December 2016 and went on to contest and win his stronghold Cumbaruja for the fourth time. He is back in the BJP after a gap of over 12 years. Interestingly, Mr. Madkaikar had been accused by Mr. Parrikar of corruption during the latter’s stint as CM. In 2005, Mr. Madkaikar was accommodated in the Congress Ministry after resigning from the BJP.

Rohan Khaunte (Independent)

Rohan Khaunte is a two-term MLA from the Porvorim constituency and is well-known voice in the State’s politics.

Francis D'Souza (BJP)

A five-term MLA from Mr. Parrikar’s hometown Mapusa, Francis D'Souza served Deputy Chief Minister in the Cabinet’s of the former and Laxmikant Parsekar. Mr. D’Souza began his Assembly in 1999 as a Goa Suraj Party member and later won four more elections on a BJP ticket.

Manohar Ajgaonkar (MGP)

Manohar Ajgaonkar began his political career in the Congress and is a frequent party-hopper. He joined the BJP in 2002 and returned to Congress in 2007. He was defeated in 2012 elections and in December 2016, chose to join the MGP and won from Pernem constituency.

Sudin Dhavalikar (MGP)

Sudin Dhavalikar was PWD Minister in the Laxmikant Parsekar government before he was sacked in December 2016. His party, the MGP, then broke ranks with the BJP and went it alone in the Assembly polls.

Vijai Sardesai (Goa Forward Party)

Vijay Sardesai cut his political teeth in the Congress and went independent in 2012 as he was denied a ticket from the Fatorda seat, which he won that year. In January 2016, he launched the Goa Forward Party, which won three seats in the Assembly polls.

Jayesh Salgaonkar (Goa Forward Party)

Jayesh Salgaonkar makes his Assembly debut as a giant-killer, defeating tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar from the Saligaon seat.

Vinod Palyekar (Goa Forward Party)

Debutante Goa Forward Party’s third Minister in the Parrikar Cabinet, Vinod Palyekar defeated former Minister Dayanand Mandrekar in Siolim.