KOLKATA
Long being sidelined from the party affairs in Goa, Luizinho Faleiro was being nudged by TMC leadership to resign from the Rajya Sabha.
TMC sources said he was asked to resign a few months back but he sought some time.
“We wish him good health and happiness. The party had asked him to resign from his Rajya Sabha seat, and it is good that he abided by the party's decision,” TMC MP Santanu Sen told PTI.
He said the party will announce a new candidate for the seat as and when the election is notified.
To a query why he was asked to resign, Sen refused to comment, saying it was an “internal matter of the party”.
Another TMC leader said, “when he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, he was expected to deliver for the party in Goa. He failed to do that, so he was asked to resign”.
The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has been upset with Faleiro after he refused to contest the 2022 Assembly election from Fatorda against Goa Forward Party's Vijai Sardesai, according to TMC sources.
When the TMC made a much-hyped foray in Goa ahead of the 2022 State Assembly polls, it asked Rajya Sabha MP Arpita Ghosh, who had a term till 2026, to quit and sent Faleiro to the Upper House in 2021.
The development comes a day after the Election Commission withdrew the national party status of the TMC, along with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).
After its emphatic victory in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, the TMC, in its attempt to expand its national footprint, began groundwork in Goa but despite its high-decibel campaign, alliance with a local outfit and induction of several leaders from rival camps, the party drew a blank in the 40-member assembly in polls last year, bagging only 5.21 per cent of the votes polled.
Responding to his resignation, the TMC Goa in a media statement said, “we wish Luizinho Faleiro good health, happiness and long life. We sincerely hope that he continues to tirelessly serve the people of Goa and strive towards achieving more progress and advancement of the State”.
