MAPUSA
As expected, State TMC president Kiran Kandolkar, who unsuccessfully contested from Aldona constituency in the State assembly elections held in February, resigned from the party on Wednesday.
Along with him, three other leaders “ Sandeep Vazarkar, Tarak Arolkar and Leo Dias who contested as TMC candidates from Porvorim, Mapusa and Siolim respectively “ also resigned from the party.
Kandolkar said after his recent visit to West Bengal, he got the impression that TMC did not have any plans for the party in Goa.
“On my recent visit to West Bengal, I was allowed to meet Abhishek Banerjee but not Mamata Banerjee, the party’s chief. With my interaction with Abhishek, I assessed that TMC had no plans for Goa and therefore decided to resign from the party,” Kandolkar said while addressing the media in Mapusa.
Kandolkar blamed I-PAC, the consultancy agency that ran the assembly campaign for TMC in Goa, and poll strategist Prashant Kishor for the no-show of TMC in the State.
He said Kishor had miserably failed as a strategist in Goa.
“Prashant Kishor has turned out to be a big zero in his political strategy in Goa. His full strategy in Goa has failed,” he said.
He also said that Prashant Kishor was trying to blackmail the Congress to get his entry into the party.
“I feel he came to Goa to blackmail Congress. He came to blackmail Sonia Gandhi. We have realised this now. He wanted to show that if you don’t take me in, then I will divide your vote share. And he has achieved it,” Kandolkar said.
He further said that his (PK’s) strategy gave a big leeway to the BJP which managed to win with the division of opposition votes.
“It’s obvious he came to Goa to help BJP win the elections. BJP has won with 33 per cent vote share and is running the government only because the opposition vote got divided,” he said.
He further said the seven per cent vote share that TMC got in Goa was only because of the personal votes of the candidate and not because of the party.
