Team Herald
PANJIM: Within a month after quitting as MLA and from primary membership of Congress and joining Goa Trinamool Congress Party (TMC), former Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco on Sunday resigned from the TMC.
Lourenco’s move comes ahead of February 14 Assembly elections and on the eve of Congress declaring its third list of candidates on Monday.
There are strong indications that the three-time legislator would rejoin the Congress. His name had also figured in the first list of Congress candidates for 2022 Goa Assembly polls four days before he quit.
In his resignation letter sent to the AITC he did not give any reasons and said that he is resigning from primary membership of the party with immediate effect.
Lourenco was also the Congress working president and co-chairman of the coordination committee when he quit the party on December 20. He joined the TMC in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and others at Kolkata the next day.
AITC Goa in-charge and MP Mahua Moitra in official statement said, “AITC has received a letter from Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco resigning from primary membership of the party. We had welcomed him into the party as we have countless others. Now that he wishes to leave, we wish him well.”
For the last few days there were speculations that Lourenco would quit the TMC and return to the Congress fold. But the TMC then released a video of Lourenco stating that he will not quit the TMC and that he was happy with the party.
When contacted, Lourenco told Herald that he decided to quit TMC bowing to the sentiments of his constituents. “When I was on door-to-door campaigning, my voters told me that TMC will split the secular votes and that I will spoil my name and reputation. Therefore considering their sentiments I decided to resign from the TMC,” he said adding that he is yet to decide his next move.
When asked whether he will return to the Congress and seek ticket to contest the Assembly polls, Lourenco said he is yet to take a decision.
Leader of the Opposition, Digambar Kamat said Lourenco’s decisions were childish behaviour. He said the All India Congress Committee (AICC) will take a decision whether to readmit him. There is nothing in the hands of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), he said.
