Former Goa Chief Minister, Luizinho Faleiro, who resigned from the Congress, joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday, after holding a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier in the day. Faleiro did not join the TMC alone. In all, 10 people, including Faleiro, joined the TMC.
Sources said Faleiro joined the TMC after due diligence. Needless to say, the TMC has been able to inflict a major blow on the Congress. Besides Tripura, the Trinamool Congress has also started gaining ground in the small state of Goa. Political circles say that this is very significant in the context of national politics.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee welcomed Luizinho Faleiro to the party in three consecutive tweets soon after he joined the party. CM Banerjee said it was a matter of pride for the TMC that the seven-time MLA and former Chief Minister had joined her party. Sources said that many more from Congress may join the TMC on Thursday as well. As a result, there are fears that the Goa Congress may collapse like a house of cards, since Luizinho Faleiro was joined by a legislator and several secretaries and co-editors of the Congress provincial committee.
Faleiro said, “I have lived as Congressman for last so many years. As a Congressman, I have the same principles and ideology as (the TMC). The Congress family is TMC, Sharad Pawar Congress, YSR Congress, Indira Congress… I will try to see that Congress family is consolidated.”
He further added, “I have requested the leader who you lovingly call ‘Didi’ and protect the state, the habitat, and the Congress family. In the Congress family, Didi has proved she can fight against the BJP. I hope she can fight under the united Congress banner.”
Along with Faleiro, former MGP MLA Lavoo Mamledar also joined the TMC, apart from former Goa Congress general secretaries Yatish Naik and Vijay Vasudev Poi, and former state secretaries of the party Mario Pinto De Santana and Anand Naik and five others. Sahitya Akademi Award winner Shivdas Sonu Naik also joined the TMC.
Thus it is clear that Goa is going to be the next target of the Trinamool Congress after Tripura. Goa currently has a BJP government. And wherever there is a BJP government, the TMC is choosing to increase its organization in those states. Notably, the TMC is targeting the smaller states first. In other words, the ruling party of Bengal is making haste slowly, without making a big jump.
WITH INPUTS FROM PANAJI, GOA.