Former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, a senior Congress leader with four decades in the party, joined the Trinamul Congress in Calcutta on Wednesday.
He switched to Trinamul, along with some other politicians and civil society members from Goa, after meeting chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The 70-year-old general-secretary of the AICC had severed his ties with the Congress and stepped down as the Navelim MLA two days ago.
Mamata’s party wants to contest the February 2022 elections to the 40-member Goa Assembly.
The tiny western state has barely 11.5 lakh voters.
“I’ve met Didi.… I’m happy to have joined the Trinamul Congress today…. I had started my journey from the west coast of the country. Today, I’m on the east coast…. Only Didi was able to successfully stand up to the divisive forces of the BJP. We need strong leadership for the resurgence of Goa. You need a strong leadership to fight the BJP and Didi can provide that,” Faleiro said in the presence of Trinamul national general-secretary Abhishek Banerjee and other party leaders Saugata Roy and Subrata Mukherjee at the Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra in the evening.
Pramod Sawant of the BJP is the chief minister of Goa where the principal Opposition is the Congress.“I have been a Congressman for 40 years. Today, the Congress has fragmented into Trinamul Congress, YSR Congress, Sharad Pawar Congress (NCP)…. My aim is to bring the Congress family together,” Faleiro said.
Besides Faleiro, Lavoo Mamledar of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Goa’s Congress leaders Yatish Naik, Vijay Vasudev Poi, Mario Pinto De Santana, Anand Naik, and Rabindranath Faleiro switched to Trinamul.
Litterateur Shivdas Sonu Naik, economic and environmental commentator Rajendra Shivaji Kakodkar and advocate Antonio Monteiro Clovis Da Costa also joined Trinamul.
Before their induction, the Goa team met Mamata at the state secretariat where, according to Faleiro, they had a long discussion on how Trinamul would go about in Goa and what it planned to do to bring about the promised change.
“It’s a matter of great pride for me to welcome Former Goa CM, 7-time MLA and stalwart Goan leader Shri @luizinhofaleiro to the Trinamool Congress family. Together we will stand up for every Goan, fight divisive forces and work towards ushering in a NEW DAWN for Goa…. I welcome all of them to our family!” tweeted Mamata later in the evening.
Abhishek said Trinamul’s fight was not against the Congress, but his party would not sit idle while the Grand Old Party did nothing.
“Trinamul is the only party that has defeated the BJP in the past seven years,” he said, accusing the Congress of being present only on social media, while the real fight was out on the streets.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha, accused Mamata of acting as a “Trojan horse” of the BJP to weaken the wider Opposition unity nationally.
“What exactly happened at the ED (Enforcement Directorate) office that those who were trying to form a coalition with the Congress earlier are suddenly attacking us?” asked Chowdhury, apparently referring to the nine-hour grilling of Abhishek in Delhi on September 6, after which he and his aunt started bitterly criticising the Congress in public.
Of Faleiro’s departure, Chowdhury said: “Paap bidaay holo (Good riddance to bad rubbish).”
