Aleixo Sequeira is pro tem Goa Speaker

Senior Congress legislator Aleixo Sequeira was on Monday sworn in as pro tem speaker of Goa legislative assembly.

Governor S C Jamir administered the oath of office and secrecy to Sequeira at Raj Bhavan in the presence of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and others.

The new legislators of the 40-member House are likely to be administered the oath on June 15, followed by the cabinet expansion, Kamat told UNI.

Meanwhile, the chief minister is leaving for New Delhi on Monday to call on the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other members of the party high command during his first courtesy call after he assumed the office on June 8.

He will also call on the Central ministers to discuss various developmental programmes and schemes associated with Goa and ways of implementing the party manifesto.

Informatively, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Ravi S Naik, who was sworn-in as minister on June 8 along with two others, had left for Delhi on Sunday to confer with the high command as to what went wrong in not selecting him for the chief minister's post at the last minute.

Former chief minister Pratapsinh Rane and Naik were strong contenders for the coveted post, but Kamat emerged as the dark horse.