Team News Riveting
Panaji, September 27
Former Goa Chief Minister and Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro resigned as member of the State Legislative Assembly on Monday and slammed the state party unit that he described as a cruel parody of what the Congress stands for.
Faleiro, however, didn’t reveal his plans amid speculations that he might join the Trinamool Congress even as he hailed the leadership of TMC chief and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before tendering his resignation letter.
Minutes before resigning, Faleiro praised West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC head Mamata Banerjee and said the country needs a leader like her to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He submitted his resignation letter to Speaker Rajesh Patnekar. The Congress leader, who represented Navelim seat and was recently made Congress campaign committee chief for Goa, wrote a letter to All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi and has alleged that the Goa unit of the party is led by a “coterie” of leaders whose priority is personal gains.
“(The Goa Congress unit is) led by a coterie of leaders who prioritize personal gains over the responsibility we owe to our people. We have utterly failed to even be an effective opposition,” he wrote in the two-page resignation letter that also mentions that the Congress party in Goa was not the same party for which they had sacrificed and fought.
“It is functioning contrary to every ideal and principle of its founding fathers upheld by Indiraji, Rajivji and you (Sonia Gandhi),” it said. “Shri Rahul Gandhiji too has been uncompromising in his fight against the forces that seek to destroy the fabric of our nation. However, the Goa unit of the party has become a cruel parody of what the Congress stands for,” he added.
With his resignation, the Congress’s strength in the 40-member House has been reduced to four.
The Congress had won 17 seats in the 2017 state Assembly elections, but later a number of MLAs resigned from the party. In July 2019, 10 MLAs quit the party and joined the ruling BJP.
