“Told to quit within 24 hours”: As TMC loses ‘national party tag’ RS MP Luizinho Faleiro quits

KOLKATA: Less than 24 hours after the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) lost its ‘national party’ tag, its Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Luizinho Faleiro (originally from Goa) resigned from his position. The political gossip mills in Kolkata claimed Faleiro was given 24 hours to quit, after the West Bengal-based party had to face national embarassment in spite of spending an estimated Rs 170 to Rs 200 crore on contesting elections in different States over the last 18-24 months. In Goa, Faleiro who was earlier with the Congress for decades, switched over to the TMC amid much fanfare in 2021 and was made a vice president at the party National Committee level. He was later elected as a Rajya Sabha MP on the party platform.

The veteran politician, who is a former Goa Chief Minister, was apparently being nudged by the TMC to resign from the Upper Chamber of Parliament for the last several months after the party-supported candidates could not even save their deposits in Goa last year in spite of a spend of Rs 40 to Rs 70 crore in the coastal state.

Faleiro had upset the Mamata Banerjee-led party after he refused to contest the 2022 Assembly election in Goa from the Fatorda constituency against the local Goan regional party, led by Vijay Sardesai. Fatorda is the stronghold of Sardesai, the chief of the Goa Forward Party and a former Congressman himself.

According to TMC sources quoted by news agency PTI, the loss of the ‘National Party’ tag was an insult the party supremo Mamata Banerjee could not digest and decided last evening that heads had to roll. Faleiro, the first on the chopping block who had it coming for him for the last year or so, was given 24 hours to pack his bags, political gossip mills in Kolkata claimed on Tuesday.

For several months now, Faleiro had been sidelined in the Trinamool Congress’ affairs in Goa (and even on the National level) and was not allowed to use the party office in Panaji to hold press conferences or meetings, claim local media reports in Goa. He saw it coming, but hung on for dear life and the perks that go with the RS MP post. But, he had definitely kept ready a nicely and smartly worded “resignation letter” as a face-saving measure, which was leaked out to media “friends” in Goa, even before the party supremo Mamata ‘didi’ got it.