Goa CM Pramod Sawant pities Congress after Luizinho Faleiro's exit: 'All leaders leaving'

Scoffing at Congress' plight in Goa, CM Pramod Sawant on Monday said most leaders from the party were leaving it. Commenting on former CM Luizinho Faleiro's resignation as an MLA, he said that it was unclear which party he would join. Faleiro, who has backed Mamata Banerjee, is likely to join Trinamool Congress in Tuesday. Goa goes to polls in February 2022.

Goa CM: 'All are leaving Congress'

"A Congress MLA (Luizinho Faleiro) has recently resigned from the party. I don't know which party he will be joining. Since 2017, Goa Congress leaders are leaving their party. Almost 13-14 people have left Congress," said Sawant.

Faleiro backs Mamata

On Monday, Faleiro criticised the Congress party and praised TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee saying she was a 'street fighter' and asserted that Goa needs her. He added that he will continue to remain a 'Congress' man while not publicly revealing the party he intended to join. In addition, he stated that he suffered in the Congress and wanted the suffering for Goans to end - tendering his resignation as an MLA to the assembly speaker.

"Among all the four Congresses, it is Mamata Banerjee who has given a tough fight to Narendra Modi's juggernaut. Narendra Modi had 200 meetings in Bengal and Amit Shah had maybe 250 meetings. Then there was the ED, CBI and everybody, but the Mamata formula has worked and she has been able to stand against it," he said.

In his letter, the veteran leader underlined how the party in spite of defeating the entire BJP and having a clear majority could not form the government because he was prevented by the then AICC desk in charge. He claimed that it was 'a decision that cost us the government, and allowed the BJP to steal the mandate'. "From 18 MLAs, we were reduced to just 5, an unmistakable dent in the history of our party," he said.

Goa Congress defection

In 2019, 10 of 15 Congress MLAs merged with the ruling BJP, increasing the saffron party's strength to 27 in the 40-seat house. The Congress, which had emerged as the single-largest party after 2017 Assembly polls in the coastal state, was reduced to five legislators.  With a group of ten Congress MLAs in Goa led by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Chandrakant Kavlekar, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced that two-thirds of the Congress Legislative Party — enough to avoid action under the anti-defection law — merged with the BJP. The party had cried foul that it had not been invited to form the government in Goa after the February 2017 Assembly polls despite it emerging as the single largest party.