Former lawmaker Lavoo Mamledar on Friday quit the Trinamool Congress (TMC) two months after joining it, accusing the party of trying to divide Goans on religious lines by aligning with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). He criticised the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), which is managing the Goa elections for TMC, for fooling the people.
In a letter to TMC leader Mamata Banerjee, Mamledar wrote he thought her party is secular. “...(It) has tried to divide Goans on the basis of religion by aligning with (MGP leader) Sudin Dhavalikar.” Mamledar said the TMC’s attempt “to polarise” Hindu and Catholic voters by aligning with MGP is “purely communal in nature”.
“We do not want to continue with a party which is trying to divide Goans.” He added they will not allow TMC and I-PAC to break Goa’s secular ethos.
Mamledar, a former MGP lawmaker from 2012 and 2017, was among the first to join the TMC in Goa after Banerjee inducted former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro into her party. He quit the MGP before joining TMC.
Mamledar said TMC has not understood Goa and Goans. “...the company which you have hired for your campaign in Goa (I-PAC) is fooling Goans and has not understood the pulse of Goans.”
{{/usCountry}}Mamledar said TMC has not understood Goa and Goans. “...the company which you have hired for your campaign in Goa (I-PAC) is fooling Goans and has not understood the pulse of Goans.”
{{/usCountry}}He criticised TMC’s promise to introduce the Griha Laxmi Scheme under which the woman head of a household will get ₹5,000 monthly if the party is voted to power. He said when the TMC government has failed to uplift women in West Bengal, they do not think it would do any good to them in Goa.
TMC has begun a registration drive for the scheme and has asked women to sign up for the scheme. It has claimed to have received 100,000 registrations so far. Mamledar said the registrations were being done to collect data
Polls in Goa are due early next year along with Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Manipur.
TMC’s move to contest polls in Goa as part of its efforts to make inroads into other states following its return to power in West Bengal for a third time this summer has soured its ties with Congress. There have been a series of defections from Congress to TMC over the last few months.