Goa polls: Defections continue as 2-time BJP MLA Carlos Almeida joins beleaguered Congress

Adding to the spate of defections ahead of the Goa polls, BJP MLA Carlos Almeida joined the Congress party in Panaji on Wednesday. A two-time legislator from Vasco, Almeida stepped down as a member of the Goa Assembly on December 21 but his resignation is yet to be accepted by the Speaker Rajesh Patnekar. Along with him, 7 councillors of Vasco and 150 BJP functionaries also switched allegiance to the Sonia Gandhi-led party in the presence of AICC Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao, Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar and Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat. 

Talking to ANI earlier, Carlos Almeida revealed, "I am sad that I have to leave BJP. The party is going one-sided. After (late Manohar)Parrikar's death, the party was not going in the right direction."

Reportedly, his tussle with BJP reached a point of no return after Krishna 'Daji' Salkar, a former Independent candidate from Vasco, joined the saffron party on November 30. Speculation was rife that Salkar will get the party ticket this time instead of Almeida. Weighing in on the BJP MLA's induction, Dinesh Gundu Rao affirmed that this will help Congress wrest all 4 seats in the Mormugao Taluk including Vasco from the JP Nadda-led party. Former CMs Digambar Kamat and Pratapsingh Rane are the only legislators among the 17 MLAs elected on a Congress ticket in the 2017 Goa election who have stayed put in the party. 

Another BJP MLA joins AAP

On December 16, Alina Saldanha became the first sitting BJP MLA to quit the party in the current Assembly's tenure. AAP's campaign for Goa polls received a huge fillip as she jumped ship to the party in the presence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Saldanha had entered electoral politics by winning a by-election after her husband and former Minister Mathany Saldanha's demise in 2012 and also retained the seat in the 2017 election. 

Speaking to the media on her decision to quit BJP, Alina Saldanha said, "I resigned because the party that late Mathany Saldanha had joined, and after his demise, I stepped into his shoes, is no longer the same. It seems to have forgotten all its principles and there's bedlam in the state". On the other hand, BJP's Goa unit stated that it had expelled her for "making comments against the party" and "participating in agitations against the ruling government".