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Goa’s lone NCP MLA joins with TMC
“TMC gets its first sitting MLA in Goa today. Alemao subsumes the NCP legislatively into TMC,” the party said in a statement
Goa’s lone Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA on Monday told the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly that he was ‘merging’ with the Trinamool Congress and should henceforth be recognized as an MLA of the Trinamool Congress.
Churchill Alemao, who is to be formally welcomed into the Trinamool Congress in the presence of Mamata Banerjee later today, told reporters that being the lone NCP MLA, he passed a ‘resolution’ to merge with the TMC and with him switching sides 100% of the MLAs of the party had switched sides, thereby ensuring that he doesn’t incur the wrath of the anti-defection law.
“I have informed the speaker of the resolution I have taken and that I should henceforth be recognized as an MLA of the TMC,” Alemao said.
Contrary to expectation, that Alemao would resign as an MLA before entering the TMC, he instead has chosen to remain an MLA, even though there are no sessions of the legislative assembly scheduled to be held before the polls.
“TMC gets its first sitting MLA in Goa today. Alemao subsumes the NCP legislatively into TMC,” the party said in a statement to the media.
The veteran politician spent a brief term of 18 days as Goa’s chief minister back in 1990 and owns the Churchill Brothers Football Club. Alemao has a storied political career in which he was one of the founding members of the now nearly defunct United Goans Democratic Party, joined the Congress, founded the now defunct Save Goa Party, besides also having a stint in the Nationalist Congress Party.
This will be Alemao’s second entry into the TMC having earlier contested the 2014 Parliamentary elections as a TMC candidate from the South Goa parliamentary seat.
