In a major setback for the Goa unit of the Trinamool Congress months before the assembly elections in the state, five of its leaders, including former Goa MLA Lavoo Mamlatdar, today resigned from the party. Mamlatdar accused the TMC of being communal and of trying to create a divide between Hindus and Christians for votes. He had joined the party three months ago and was among the first few local leaders who joined the party.
Lavoo Mamlatdar also alleged that the TMC was collecting personal data of people in the name of rolling out a welfare scheme for women – Griha Laxmi scheme – if voted to power. “I was under the impression that TMC is a very secular party. But from whatever I have noticed in the last 15-20 days, I came to know that it is worse than the BJP…As part of their pre-poll alliance, they want that the Christian votes should go to the TMC and Hindu votes to the MGP…The TMC is a communal party, which is trying to disturb the secular fabric,” he alleged.
Mamlatdar’s resignation came weeks after the TMC joined hands with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), of which he was an MLA between 2012 and 2017, and was expelled after he wrote to the speaker claiming that he was the sole authority to communicate on behalf of his party.
The resignation letter was signed by Mamledar, Ram Mandrekar, Kishor Parwar, Komal Parwar and Sujay Mallik. The letter said, “We will not allow AITC and the company managing AITC Goa to break the secular fabric of the state and we shall protect it.”
They also claimed that by aligning with Ramkrishna alias Sudin Dhavalikar – MGP leader and the party’s lone MLA, TMC is trying to divide the votes.
Yesterday, TMC had announced that its Griha Laxmi Scheme will cover every woman and they will be given Rs 5,000 every month. The letter further said, “The company you have hired for your campaign in Goa is fooling Goans and they have not understood the pulse of Goa. This clearly indicates that in Goa the Griha Laxmi Scheme is nothing but a collection of data for elections by the company you have hired as they don’t have any data on the ground.” The Trinamool Congress has assigned Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC with the responsibility of running the party’s poll campaign in Goa.
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