While the Assembly elections are barely a month away, political defections continue unabated in Goa, with senior Congress leader and former MLA Victor Gonsalves the latest to quit his party to join the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday.
Mr. Gonsalves, the former MLA from the Santa Cruz Assembly constituency, was inducted into the TMC’s fold in the presence of MPs Mahua Moitra (the party’s Goa in-charge) and Sushmita Dev.
Claiming that the Congress had betrayed the trust of its supporters and workers, the ex-Congressman said that Ms. Banerjee was the only person who could be projected as a credible alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The Congress party has been sidelining its loyal workers…furthermore, there is no real ground work being done in any constituency by the Congress. They are fast losing the people’s trust,” claimed Mr. Gonsalves, who had won the St. Cruz seat way back in 1989 and was a former general secretary of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC).
According to sources, the real reason for his resignations appears to be the induction into Congress of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Cabinet Minister and ex-Calangute legislator Michael Lobo.
Mr. Lobo’s induction has also led to intense resentment within local Congress ranks, leading to the Calangute Congress block members resigning en masse.
Earlier, TMC MP Sushmita Dev claimed there will be an “exodus of leaders” from the Congress, who would soon join the TMC.
Hitting out at Mr. Lobo’s ‘opportunism’, Ms. Dev further said that the former Minister would join whichever party formed the government after the Assembly elections.
Nonetheless, despite being a long-term member of the Goa Congress, Mr. Gonsalves has had his fair share of opportunism, party-hopping frequently as he aligned himself with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) before joining the Vijai Sardesai-led Goa Forward Party (GFP) in 2017.
He had re-entered the Congress in 2020 before leaving it for the TMC.
The Congress has been accusing the TMC of being more “anti-Congress” than “anti-BJP” in its Goa election strategy, with Congress’ Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao stating that Ms. Banerjee’s party had been poaching leaders from Congress’ ranks.
It is the ruling BJP, with the maximum number of MLAs, that has been bedevilled most by defections from, and disgruntlements within, the party.
Loyalist BJP cadres have been disappointed with the induction of “imported” candidates into the saffron party, such as independent MLA Rohan Khaunte.
The BJP has lost at least four sitting MLAs in less than a month, including three Catholic legislators — former Minister Alina Saldanha, who joined the AAP; Carlos Almeida, who joined the Congress; and Mr. Lobo.
