After ‘flop show’ in Goa, Didi refuses to take Luizinho Faleiro’s phone calls?

KOLKATA: Reliable sources say that after a totally ‘flop show’ on her maiden visit to Goa (Read More Here), West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is so upset with former Goa CM Luizinho Faleiro, that she has refused to take his phone calls for the last few days. The official reason given is that Didi is busy with matters pertaining to the festive season in her home state, plus the by-poll results.

Didi as she is popularly known as in West Bengal, has held Faleiro responsible for the fiasco, because according to her reasoning PK (Prashant Kishor) and Derek O’Brien still need to get a thorough understanding of the psychic of Goans and hidden nuances of Goan politics.

According to observers, the lukewarm response to her invitations and subsequent meetings with Goan leaders and MLAs like Rohan Khaunte, Vijai Sardesai and Sudin Dhavalikar was a double whammy, which has left Banerjee fuming. She expected Faleiro to do the ‘behind the scenes homework’ to get some good, positive media coverage for these meetings, but was thoroughly disappointed.

After all Banerjee is not just the Chairperson of the TMC, she is also the Chief Minister of West Bengal. The (almost) snub or cold-hearted response by local politicians has definitely not gone down well with Banerjee, said an MLA from her party, who didn’t want to be named.

Several Whatsapp or SMS messages and attempts to contact Derek O’Brien and Prashant Kishor for comment on this story went unanswered and the duo did not revert back to us. Luizinho Faleiro too was not reachable. Other newly-inducted TMC Goa functionaries like Adv Yatish Naik also did not reply to our messages.

Apparently, in what could be good news for the Goa arm of the beleaguered Congress, all does not seem to be going well in the Goa TMC unit and Mamata Banerjee who is known to be a tough task master is asking questions and demanding answers. And she has every right to, given the fact that her party spent (or blew up) more than Rs 2 crore in the last two months in Goa. A very expensive “political tourism” trip even by Dr Pramod Sawant’s standards, which the Goa CM will definitely agree to.

Goans can expect to see dramatic changes in the TMC setup in the coastal state, immediately after Diwali and new people may be brought in to helm the party in Goa in the next week.