News Analysis India

Tag: Luizinho Falerio

  • Rajya Sabha polls: Trinamool on the front foot to establish national footprint  

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Trinamool Congress leader and former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Falerio being nominated to the Rajya Sabha soon after the elevation of new entrant and former Congress leader from Assam Sushmita Dev to the upper house of the Parliament is seen as a pre-poll move to give the party a national look by chief Mamata Banerjee eyeing the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

    According to a senior Trinamool Congress leader, bringing UP Congress leader Lalitesh Pati Tripathi on board is also part of the larger poll plan to remain relevant in  national narrative, said a senior party leader.

    “Mamata hopes of pitting a challenge against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024. Besides, the TMC has been working full swing for the Goa polls early next year,” the leader said. 

    Sources said that if Mamata has to take on the Modi government, she has to be part of the narrative and one of the ways is being proactive electorally.

    “The next election in Bengal is in 2026. And if Mamata di should mean business, then her party must have a greater presence in all future elections. TMC contesting in a big way in Goa 2022, its plans to expand reach within other poll-bound states and getting Lalitesh Pati Tripathi in Uttar Pradesh are all part of this strategy. The party is working hard to connect with people in Tripura with elections due in 2023 and closely will follow the Lok Sabha elections in 2024,” said the leader.

    If Mamata di wants to be a national leader, the TMC has to be part of all future elections,  said the leader.  

    Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, being the grandson of former veteran Congress leader and former UP CM Kamlapati Tripathi, is a big bet for the party in UP. 

    Incidentally, Falerio and Dev’s Rajya Sabha role come after sitting members Manas Ranjan Bhunia and Arpita Ghosh were asked to resign to make way for non-Bengali faces in the Parliament representing TMC. 

  • Former Goa CM Luizinho Falerio, 9 others join TMC in Kolkata

    Express News Service

    KOLKATA: Former Goa CM and seven-term Congress MLA Luizinho Falerio on Wednesday joined the TMC in Kolkata along with nine others, including four Congress functionaries, a former MLA from MGP, and a Sahitya Academy award winner. 

    The mega induction ahead of the Goa Assembly elections slated to be held next year took place in presence of TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee who announced that the Bengal’s ruling party would enter the fray alone in the western state. 

    Asked if TMC would enter into an alliance with AAP as the time is short, Banerjee said, “In Goa, TMC is going to fight the upcoming election by itself. Hope this puts a rest to all speculations.”

    Pointing out that the TMC is emerging as BJP’s main opposition, the second-in-command in Bengal’s ruling party said, “Our fight is against the BJP and not the Congress. The difference between Congress and TMC is that we have been defeating the BJP for the last seven years. Congress cannot be sitting idle. They have to hit the streets. We will not be cowed down take the BJP head-on.”   

    Falerio tendered his resignation two days ago. “My political journey began 40 years ago from the western part of the state and now it has reached the coastal area in the east,” he said after joining the TMC. The former Goa CM arrived in Kolkata on Tuesday and before joining Bengal’s ruling party, he held an hour-long meeting with CM Mamata Banerjee at the secretariat. 

    Other than Falerio, former MGP MLA Lavoo Mamledar, two Congress general secretaries Yatish Naik and Vijay Vasudev Poi, two Congress secretaries Mario Pinto De Santana and Anand Naik, Sahitya Academy Award winner Shivdas Sonu Naik, former state youth wing vice president of Congress Rabindranath Falerio, environmentalist Rajemdra Shivdaji Kakodkar and prominent lawyer Antonio Monterio Clovis Da Costa joined the TMC. 

    “Today in presence of @MamataOfficial, EX Goa CM & 7-term Congress MLA @luzinhofalerio joined Trinamool Congress. He’d called for a CREDIBLE ALTERNATIVE for Goans & we’re pleased that he has chosen Mamata Banerjee’s leadership to work towards bringing a #NewDawn for Goa,” TMC tweeted.