Vasco MLA had recently urged BJP top brass to ensure adequate representation for minorities
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Pune: The pandemic of political resignations and defections in Goa continued unabated ahead of the 2022 Assembly with sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Carlos Almeida from the Vasco da Gama Assembly constituency in South Goa, quit the party as well as the State Assembly on Tuesday.
Almeida, a two-term MLA, has represented the Vasco seat since 2012. He claimed that he was being “sidelined” by the BJP, alleging that the saffron party had lost its direction in Goa since the demise of former BJP chief minister Manohar Parrikar.
Sources disclosed that Almeida is believed to be in talks with the Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has been fairly successful in recruiting a number of Catholic MLAs in recent months including former chief ministers Luizinho Faleiro (Congress), Churchill Alemao (NCP), and most recently Aleixo Lourenco, who quit the Congress earlier this week.
With Almeida’s resignation, the strength of the BJP – the largest party in the 40-seat Assembly – is now down to 24. Almeida was unhappy with the saffron party ever since the BJP re-inducted his arch rival, Krishna alias ‘Daji’ Salkar into the party fold.
Salkar had quit the BJP some years ago. Much to Almeida’s surprise his close aide, BJP’s Vasco block president Deepak Naik supported Salkar’s entry into the party. Naik even went as far to say he would have no objection if Naik was picked over Almeida as the candidate for the Vasco seat.
In November, the Vasco MLA had urged the BJP’s top brass to continue Parrikar’s policy of giving adequate representation to minorities, urging the party heads to allot 35% seats to Catholic candidates. He cited Parrikar’s policy of awarding tickets to minorities had stood the BJP in good stead in the 2012 and 2017 Assembly elections.
Almeida had then supported the Congress’s accusations against BJP minister Milind Naik, who was alleged to have sexually exploited a woman from Bihar. Naik was later forced to resign following the accusations against him.
Without naming his party colleague, Almeida had demanded that Naik be sacked, claiming that if the video of the alleged ‘sex scandal’ was leaked, it would ruin the BJP’s image and badly impact the party’s performance in the ensuing assembly elections in the five states.
This is the second jolt to the BJP within a week after its Cortalim MLA and former minister Alina Saldanha quit the party last week, citing ‘loss of principles’ in the BJP and criticising the saffron party for pursuing destructive, anti-people policies.
