Three of the 10 Congress lawmakers in Goa who switched to the BJP earlier this week were were sowrn in as ministers Saturday by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. Chandrakant Kavlekar, the former leader of opposition, has been sworn in as deputy chief minister.

Chandrakant Kavlekar, Philip Nery Rodrigues, Atanasio Monserratte, who had joined the BJP on Wednesday and Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo took their oaths at the Raj Bhavan at 3 pm Saturday.

Lobo, who stepped down as the deputy Speaker of the Goa Assembly earlier today, is the fourth leader to get a Cabinet berth.

Ten Congress MLAs had Wednesday joined the BJP, increasing the strength of the party to 27 in the 40-member House.

Earlier in the day, strengthened by their support, Sawant asked three members of ally Goa Forward Party (GFP) and an Independent legislator Rohan Khaunte to step down as ministers. The GFP is a regional party that was instrumental in forming the Manohar Parrikar-led government in 2017.

The three GFP members who were dropped are: Vijai Sardesai, Vinoda Paliencar and Jayesh Salgaocar.

The GFP, which is reportedly miffed its ministers were asked to quit, expectedly withdrew support to the government. “We will withdraw support to the government and join the opposition,” Vijai Sardesai was quoted as saying to media.

This would the second cabinet reshuffle by Sawant since he took over as the chief minister three months ago. In his first cabinet reshuffle, Sawant had inducted MGP’s breakaway MLA Deepak Pauskar after dropping then deputy chief minister Sudin Dhavalikar.