Dr Wilfred De Souza was an active politician for many years and was also actively involved in the official language agitation 1986 where he was a member of the core committee. He was a very gentle and decent man. I did not have many occasions to interact with him to a great extent as I was with the Congress and he was out of the Congress at that time. He was the president of Goa Pradesh committee in 1984, the sister party of GPCC when I contested as an independent and I was a staunch Congress supporter and I received a lot of support from him and Luizinho Faleiro in particular who had also contested the elections with Dr Wilfred. If you look at his political life and you compare it to other politicians, what certainly stands out is that he had a very clean image as there were no allegations of corruption against him
— Advocate Uday Bhembre
This morning when I came to know, I rushed to the hospital and was shocked. Dr Wilfred De Souza was a dear and great friend and I knew him personally. It is a sad day for the entire state. I have also called a meeting today of the executive Goa Pradesh Congress committee to condole his death. A condolence motion was passed for doing a great amount of work for Goa and his immense and irreplaceable contribution to the state.
He was not only the chief minister thrice but it was under his tenure of congress presidency in Goa that he brought Goa’s first Congress government. I remember he took part in all the historic the movements which Goa has seen including the movement for twin aspirations, that is the Official language act and Goa statehood. He was always ready to take up causes for Goa and it was his experience and his incredible political mind that will be sorely missed and I can’t say enough how much of a loss this is for Goa
— Luizinho Faleiro, GPCC President
