Express News Service
Former Goa chief minister and MLA Luizinho Faleiro resigned from the Congress party on Monday and is likely to join the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Faleiro, who tendered his resignation as an MLA to Goa Assembly speaker, said, “till now, no one is being held accountable for the loss of our 13 MLAs while sidelining of true Congress workers continues.”
“I see absolutely no hope or even the will to prevent the collapse of the party and the change for the better,” he said.
Faleiro was referring to the 13 MLAs crossing over to the BJP over the last five years, reducing Congress to a single-digit entity in the 40-member House.
In his letter to Interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Faleiro said “It (the party) is functioning contrary to every ideal and principle of its founding fathers upheld by Indiraji, Rajivji and you (Sonia Gandhi)”.
In his resignation letter, Faleiro has also accused former AICC Goa Desk in-charge Digvijaya Singh, without naming him, of stopping him to stake claim to form the government in 2017 despite the Congress having the required number of MLAs on its side.
“I was prevented from going to the governor by the AICC desk in-charge and was asked to wait till we had 24 MLAs, a decision that eventually cost us the government and allowed the BJP to steal the mandate through manipulations and inducements,” he alleged.
Seventy-one-year-old Faleiro served as chief minister of the state in 1998-99. A Congress veteran, Faleiro has also served as AICC general secretary in charge of Northeast states.
After his resignation, Luizinho Faleiro called West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as a “street-fighter”. He added, “Goa is going through difficult times and it needs such fighters, which are also in the the same wavelength, same party ideology, policies, principles and programs. I am a Congressman and I would like in the larger picture for all the Congress parties to come together and fight the next Parliament elections.”
TMC has an eye in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections so it has decided to expand the wing of the party in other states as well. In Goa as well, TMC is aiming to contest all 40 seats in the state. Senior TMC leaders Derek O’Brien and Prasun Banerjee arrived in the state last week and have been holding discussions with politicians and civil society members.
AAP has been also trying to strengthen expand its base in Goa. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other senior leaders of APP have been frequently visiting Goa to encourage the party cadre and people to join the AAP ahead of Goa state polls.
