Trying to make inroads into India’s smallest state, Goa, the Trinamool Congress may just have poached one of its tallest leaders in Luizinho Faleiro. The 71-year-old Navelim MLA from the Congress resigned from the grand old party on Monday, and praised West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for her “streetfighter” spirit and for posing a “real direct challenge” to the Narendra Modi-led BJP at the Centre.
With Faleiro all set to join the TMC, the party gets a boost as it is ready to launch an extensive political campaign in Goa ahead of the 2022 assembly election in February. Party leaders Derek O’Brien and Prasun Banerjee are already in the state to take forward Mamata’s ‘Khela Hobe’ campaign.
Asked about his decision to leave the Congress, Faleiro said, “The Congress family is divided… We have to think out of the box. I will support Mamata… She has fought and won. I think she can bring this country back on the path of progress.” He, however, added that he was still a “Congress man” and had not left the “Congress family”.
“I have resigned from the MLA post and from the primary membership of Congress. But I am very much a part of the Congress family. I will let you know about my other decisions soon,” Faleiro said after his resignation.
With only months left for the election, however, the Congress has received a jolt in Faleiro’s loss, who is a former chief minister. Faleiro was once considered close to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The Congress is left with only five MLAs in the 40-member house. In 2019, 10 MLAs from the Congress defected to the BJP.
Navelim is a typical Congress bastion in South Goa that is represented by party MP Francisco Sardinha in the Lok Sabha. Hundreds gathered to listen to Faleiro as he spoke about his decision to leave the Congress.
The Congress veteran has served as chief minister of the state in 1998-99. Faleiro has represented Navelim for seven terms, of which two were in 1980 and 1984 when Goa was a union territory with Daman & Diu. After that too, from 1989 to 2002, he won four consecutive terms. And then another in 2017.
He was elected from the seat for the first time on a Congress ticket. But in 1984, he clinched it as an independent. But for the rest of the terms till 2002, he retained the seat on a Congress ticket. The years 2007 and 2012 were aberrations for Faleiro, who lost to Churchill Alemao of the Save Goa Front and Avertano Furtado, respectively. But he fought back and won again in 2017.
He had been serving as Congress general secretary in-charge of seven northeastern states — Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura. Known as an astute political strategist, Faleiro has had a hand in stitching up alliances and forming governments in Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. His experience can bring a lot to the table for the TMC, which has decided to contest all 40 seats and is also looking to move into Tripura politics.
If Faleiro joins the TMC, it would not be the first time an ex-Goa chief minister has looked to the party for an anchor of sorts. In 2014, former CM Churchill Alemao also joined the TMC and contested the Lok Sabha elections as the South Goa candidate. But only to lose.
Faleiro calls himself an agriculturist in his poll affidavit, and counts farming among his hobbies. He holds a master’s degree in commerce and is also a graduate in law. He is married to Rachel Faleiro. Interestingly, all three of his kids have multicultural names. His two sons are called Lenin and Rabindra, while his daughter is called Rania.
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