4-5 politicians from Goa all set to join TMC, Didi looking for a “big face” for Goa

PANAJI: If sources are to be believed, at least 4 to 5 known politicians and former MLAs from Goa are all set to join the All India Trinamool Congress  or TMC as its known in the coming weeks.

While 3 out of the 5 politicians are definitely from the Congress, the remaining two could be from any other party, including the BJP.

Names of former Goa CM and Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro and former Panaji Mayor Surendra Furtado are doing the rounds on social media. However both of them have denied that they are joining the TMC.

Congress State Party President Girish Chodankar and LoP Digambar Kamat Thursday evening air-dashed to Delhi, but said it was a routine visit and had nothing to do with media reports that alleged Faleiro was going over to the TMC in return for a Rajya Sabha seat.

It seems the TMC leadership is looking for a big, known and powerful local face from Goa to lead the party in the polls. Faleiro is one such name, and sources say an announcement may come anytime soon.

Faleiro admitted that he met representatives from Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC, but it was a routine courtesy call.

The TMC which has been venturing into Assam and Tripura in the east and lapping up Congress leaders, the WB party is eyeing the western frontier as well with the state of Goa on its radar. Goa goes to polls in February 2022.

The TMC party sent a team of I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) to the state a couple of weeks ago to test the waters.

I-PAC is the Prashant Kishor-led agency TMC hired to strategise its 2021 poll campaign and retained for the next five years, following its win during the high-voltage poll drama with the BJP.

Earlier in 2014, the All India Trinamool Congress had tried its luck in Goa when former state Chief Minister Churchill Alemao fought the Lok Sabha elections on a TMC ticket from the South Goa constituency, which he lost.

Alemao later joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2016 and contested the 2017 assembly elections from the Benaulim constituency, which he won.