Goa Polls: As Congress slumbers, TMC to announce its CM candidate

PANAJI: The Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien on Saturday confirmed his party would be contesting the next year’s Goa Assembly polls.

He was non-committal and refused to comment on alliances with local parties.

The party will announce its Chief Ministerial candidate soon, he added.

“We are here as a serious contender against the ruling BJP,” the MP told PTI.

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor and a team of nearly 200 workers are camped in Goa since the last two weeks doing the groundwork for the polls and testing the waters.

The Mamata Banerjee-led party has no “high-command culture” and will pick credible local leaders in the coastal state, O’Brien told media persons in Goa.

Since arriving in Goa on Friday, Derek O’Brien has been meeting representatives of civil society as well as political leaders.