Panaji, Mar 21 (IANS): Caretaker Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is on track to continue as Chief Minister of the state, even as the BJP MLAs are scheduled to stake claim to form the next government in Goa later on Monday. Sawant, 48, has held the post of Chief Minister from 2019-2022.

Sawant's candidature was endorsed at a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party's 20-member legislature party in the presence of Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar, an emissary of the BJP's central parliamentary board and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is the party's in-charge of poll-related affairs.

Tomar made the formal announcement of Pramod Sawant's appointment as the leader of the BJP legislative party.

The BJP won 20 out of the 40 assembly seasts which went to polls on February 14. Although the party is just one MLA short of majority, it has received five letters of support from three independent MLAs and from the two-member Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party.