PANAJI
The Goa TMC on Monday came out in full force to condemn the comment made against recently inducted member, Aleixo Reginaldo by senior Congress leader P Chidambaram who had called him a ‘losing candidate’ in a recent interview.
TMC bigwigs including Reginaldo Lourenco himself, Kiran Kandolkar, Ethel Lobo and a host of other leaders including Sandeep Vazarkar, Anand Naik, Samil Volvoikar and Pratibha Borkar held a press conference to counter the Congress and expose their manipulative tactics designed to mislead the voters. The press conference was held at the party office in Panaji.
Kandolkar pointed out the fallacy of Chidambaram’s comment, noting that Lourenco himself is a three time legislator while suggesting that Chidambaram had stooped way below his stature.
Kandolkar then asked a pertinent question to the Congress, “If you claim that Reginaldo is a losing candidate, why did you feature his name in the first list of candidates that was released just 10 days ago?’ He added, ‘Does Congress put losing candidates in their first list?’
Ethel Lobo said, “this is a classic case of grapes being sour. Congress has a problem with anyone who gets popular beyond his constituency. At a time when most would play to the galleries or be mute spectators, at a time when Congress bigwigs would just stage walk outs, Reginaldo was the only tall leader raising all sorts of questions. This was not an easy task but he did it for you. We stand by Reginaldo and give him all the support that he needs to serve the people of Goa.”
Addressing the media for the first time since his induction into Goa TMC, Reginaldo spoke about his intuitive decision to quit the Congress after years of being thwarted.
He asserted, “the aspiration of my people is my priority. This decision to be with the TMC has been taken only keeping in mind the interest of the people of Goa. I was a working president for Congress but only on paper”.
Calling out several smear campaigns launched against him, Reginaldo said, “too many tricks are being played to malign my image. I've never been involved in any corruption case. They want to bring me down because I called out their incompetence”.
Reginaldo also said, “I quit the Congress because they don’t have the intention or the determination to oust the BJP. The Congress never pays attention to anything that matters to the common man. Every time we took up issues in the Assembly, nothing happened”.
Stating that his decision to join TMC is solely driven by the single-minded intention to oust the BJP from the state, Reginaldo said, “TMC is the party that has fire in the belly and intent to oust the BJP. I want to tell my people that there will be no compromise on any issue nor any interest where the State is involved. I am a son of the soil and I can vouch that this is a good decision that I took for my people”.
