Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20

In yet another jolt to the Congress ahead of the Goa Assembly elections, the party’s state working president, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, today resigned as Member of the Legislative Assembly, reducing the party’s strength to two in the 40-member House.

Lourenco is set to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC). According to latest reports, the Goa legislator has already landed in Kolkata, where he will formally join the Mamata Banerjee-led party.

Notably, the Congress last week declared its first list of eight candidates for the state poll and Lourenco’s name figured in it. Lourenco, who represented the Curtorim Assembly segment in south Goa district, submitted his resignation to the Assembly Speaker’s office on Monday afternoon. He later resigned from the party.

Earlier, former CM Luizinho Faleiro had quit the Congress and joined the TMC, which has decided to contest the Goa Assembly polls to be held early next year.