As the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) is all set to make its electoral debut in Goa elections this year, senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Luizinho Faleiro has said the TMC is “definitely” open to having an alliance with the Congress and other “like-minded secular parties”.
Faleiro, a former Goa Congress chief minister, said, “Definitely yes. Mamata Didi herself said three months ago that she is ready for an alliance with like-minded parties.”
When asked who will make the first move between the Congress and TMC after the Goa elections, Faleiro said when he joined the TMC after quitting the Congress, many of his supporters told him it would lead to a division of secular votes. “Didi (Mamata) tried herself at the highest level in Delhi. Discussions were on,” he said.
The TMC had earlier also announced that Faleiro would be contesting from the Fatorda constituency in south Goa, but at the last minute, he withdrew his candidature and instead advocate Seaoula Vas was selected. Vas, who is also a social activist, is pitted against Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai and BJP’s Damu Naik. Goa Forward has a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in this election.
Advocate Seaoula Vas told News18 while she may have received less time to campaign, she was already working to build awareness for the party and other schemes it had offered as part of its election manifesto. “But my biggest advantage is that I’m a new face and come from a clean and an educated background. People know my work in the social justice space as a lawyer, Vas quips.
Meanwhile, reacting to the TMC’s offer of a fresh post-poll alliance, senior leader and Congress candidate from Panjim Elvis Gomes said it is a matter for the party high command to decide. “We are comfortable of a majority win on our own. In Panjim, people are fed up of the state of affairs, both political and civic where Babush Monserrate (BJP legislator from Panjim) has done nothing,” Gomes commented.
Babush Monserrate is also the BJP candidate from Panjim for the state assembly election on February 14.
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