Digambar Kamat

Digamber Kamat (born 8 March 1954) is an Indian politician who served as the Chief Minister of Goa from 2007 to 2012. He won the seventh term as a MLA from Margao Assembly constituency in 2022.^[1] From 2006 to 2019, he was the president of Swimming Federation of India.^[2] Currently, he serves as an MLA from the Margao constituency.

Digamber Kamat
Kamat in 2010
Leader of the Opposition, Goa Legislative Assembly
In office 18 July 2019 – 31 March 2022
Governor	Mridula Sinha Satya Pal Malik Bhagat Singh Koshiyari (Additional charge) P. S. Sreedharan Pillai
Chief Minister	Pramod Sawant
Preceded by	Chandrakant Kavlekar,
Succeeded by	Michael Lobo
Member of the Goa Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 1994
Preceded by	Babu Naik
Constituency	Margao
9th Chief Minister of Goa
In office 8 June 2007 – 9 March 2012
Preceded by	Pratapsingh Rane
Succeeded by	Manohar Parrikar
Personal details
Born	(1954-03-08) 8 March 1954 (age 71) Margão, Goa, Portuguese India
Political party	Bharatiya Janata party (1994–2005, 2022–present)
Other political affiliations	Indian National Congress (1989–1994, 2005–2022)
Spouse	Asha Kamat
Children	2

Early life

Digambar Kamat was born in Margão, Portuguese Goa. He holds a bachelor's degree in science (BSc).^[3]

Political career

Digambar Vasantrao Kamat started his career as a member of the Indian National Congress. In 1994, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party Coalition government. In 2005, he again joined the Indian National Congress to support the Margao constituency voters' referendum choice. Kamat passed the baton of leadership on 6 March 2012, to a BJP majority government in the Goa Assembly Elections held in March 2012. He retained his Margao Constituency seat and continued until 2019 as elected legislative member of Margao Constituency.^{[citation needed]}

Chief Minister of Goa

He became Chief Minister of Goa in 2007.

Leader of Opposition, Goa

On 17 July 2019, Digambar Kamat was unanimously chosen a leader of opposition of Goa Legislative Assembly representing the Indian National Congress. In March 2022, he was once again elected as a legislative member of Margao Constituency.^{[citation needed]}

On 31 March 2022, he was appointed a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC).^[4] In July 2022, he was removed as the 'Permanent Invitee' to CWC.^[5]

Defection to BJP

On 14 September 2022, Kamat along with senior Congress leader Michael Lobo, and 6 other Congress MLAs joined Bharatiya Janata Party, after meeting Dr. Pramod Sawant, BJP Chief Minister of Goa.^[6][7] The defection was a result of a successful Operation Kamala.^[8]

Personal life

Kamat is married to Asha and has two children.^{[citation needed]}