the goan I network
MARGAO
How did Congress veteran Luizinho Faleiro make it to the Goa Legislative Assembly when he was busy campaigning for the party in the North East along with Congress president Rahul Gandhi? A chartered flight brought him to Goa right on time to participate in the vote of confidence by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant.
Faleiro was holed up at Imphal with Rahul Gandhi when he received a call from home informing him about the notice issued by the Secretariat on Wednesday’s vote of confidence. “It was 8 pm on Tuesday when I received the message. There was no possibility of taking the first available flight from Imphal to Mumbai and Goa since there’s no night flying in Imphal and early morning,” Faleiro said.
Left with on option, a chartered plane was arranged for me, but the problem did not end there. Faleiro said since the chartered plane was supposed to come from Mumbai, it needed refuelling at the Imphal airport, but the facility is not available at the airport early morning. “It was only after senior officials were contacted and briefed about the urgency of taking the flight to Goa, that my chartered plane left Imphal for Goa in the wee hours of Wednesday,” Faleiro said, adding “even a section of the media reported that Luizinho Faleiro will not make it for the vote of confidence, but I made it to the Assembly right on time”.
The Navelim MLA, who is the Congress general secretary in-charge of the North East, had been shuttling between Goa, Delhi and the North East from Sunday. He came down to Goa by the afternoon flight for the funeral of former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and returned back to Delhi by the late evening flight. Monday saw Faleiro along with Rahul Gandhi heading to the North East to address election meetings at Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
A total 11 Lok Sabha seats are at state in the North East, where both the BJP and the Congress are leaving nothing to chance. “Elections in the North East are scheduled in the first phase for the 11 Lok Sabha seats as well as for the Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim Assemblies.
“I have to look after the shortlisting of candidates for the 11 Lok Sabha seats and 92 seats of the Legislative Assembly of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The ground work in these states is almost over and the scene will now shift to Delhi for the final
declaration of candidates,” Faleiro added.
