TMC planning to contest all 40 seats in Goa Assembly polls on its own: Faleiro

PANAJI, (PTI): A day after joining the Trinamool Congress (TMC), former Congress MLA Luizinho Faleiro on Thursday said the Mamata Banerjee-led party plans to contest all 40 seats in the next year’s Goa Assembly polls on its own, without forging any alliance.

Talking to reporters during a press conference here, the former Goa chief minister also said TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee would visit the state once the ongoing 15-day ‘pitru paksh’ period, which is considered inauspicious for launching new projects, gets over.

Faleiro joined the TMC on Wednesday in Kolkata along with nine other leaders.

He addressed the press conference here in the presence of senior TMC leaders, including Derek O’Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Prasun Banerjee and Manoj Tiwary.

”The party is scouting for fresh faces for the upcoming election in Goa…As far as TMC is concerned, we would like to give 40 clean new faces,” he said in response to a query on whether the party would consider those MLAs, who have defected from one party to another.

When asked if the TMC plans to forge an alliance, he said, ”We are going to go all alone.” It is possible for the TMC to win the upcoming elections in Goa although the time left for the polls was very short, he added. The elections are due in February.

Faleiro attacked the Congress saying that the party never wanted to form a government in Goa and therefore it did not stake claim for it despite emerging as the single largest party after the 2017 elections.

He said that I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) has been conducting a survey in Goa, the results of which would be available in next 10-15 days, after which the detailed road map for elections in Goa would be prepared.

He said the TMC would release a ”charge sheet” against the BJP government in Goa, which would expose its ”misdeeds”.

In the last Assembly polls, the Congress had won the highest number of 17 seats, restricting the BJP to 13 seats. However, surprising the Congress, the saffron party allied with regional parties and formed government under the leadership of senior leader Manohar Parrikar.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has already thrown its hat in the ring ahead of the polls, with the party’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announcing free power up to 300 units per month and 80 per cent jobs for locals if his party is voted to power during his recent visit to Panaji. (PTI)