Team Herald
MARGAO: Former chief minister and Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro while remaining non-committal on contesting the next assembly elections due in 2022 said, “he was feeling sad to see what was happening to the Congress Party in Goa” when asked to comment on Pratima Coutinho blaming him for her defeat at the Zilla Panchayat elections.
“I resigned as the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President in 2017 when some said that the Congress would form the government if I was not the President,” he said adding that since then he has stayed away from interfering with the party functioning.
“You should ask the Congress leadership these questions,” he said while stating that he had told Pratima that he would be busy in Kerala and would only attend corner meetings for her and participate in the door to door campaign and she agreed to it, he said.
“You should find out how and why a person who was a registered voter in Margao suddenly shifted to Navelim before the ZP elections,” he said adding that the person responsible for this change should answer the questions.
He further pointed out that only Navelim and Telaulim from his constituency were part of the Navelim Zilla constituency while three villages — Dramapur, Sirlim and Sarzora were part of the Velim constituency.
Speaking further he said the consensus amongst his supporters was that Santa Rita Coelho’s wife be given the Congress ticket after his death as they felt she would get people’s sympathy as her late husband had done a lot of work.
“I conveyed this decision to the party leaders in Goa as well as in Delhi but then the party decided to field Pratima and it would be relevant to find out who did this,” he said adding that as a “loyal soldier of the party” he was feeling sad with what was happening to the Congress Party in Goa.
“We lost 13 MLAs, we lost most of the by-elections, we lost the Zilla Panchayat elections, we lost the municipal council elections now and this is sad,” he said adding that the party has to introspect and find out why this is happening.
Luizinho said he was never in favour of contesting the ZP elections on party lines as panchayat, municipal council and ZP elections are opportunities for new leaders to emerge and the party should encourage that instead of foisting party candidates on people.
He refused to answer the direct question whether he would contest the next assembly elections scheduled to be held in 2022. “I am committed to serving my constituency during my term and that is what I am doing,” he said.
He said it would not be correct on his part to comment what will happen or what he would do once his term as MLA is over adding that he cannot shirk his responsibility to the people who voted him to be the MLA.
