Goa Speaker Rajendra Arlekar to be made Cabinet Minister

Panaji: Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Rajendra Arlekar will be inducted into state Cabinet by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar.

Arlekar would be sworn in on Thursday at a simple function to be held at Raj Bhavan Dona Paula at 4 PM.

After Arlekar's induction, Deputy Speaker Anant Shet would replace him as Speaker. Sant Andre MLA Vishnu Wagh would be nominated for the deputy speaker.

The name of Arlekar, a two-time MLA, was cleared during the BJP's core committee meeting held last evening.

The vacancy in the council of ministers was caused by the resignation of the then Rural Development Minister Mickky Pacheco, who quit in April this year after he was sentenced to six months imprisonment for assaulting a junior engineer of Electricity department.

There is a limit of 12 Cabinet members in Goa.