Ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections, Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco, the former working president of the Congress in Goa, who had joined the Trinamool Congress in December 2021, resigned from the party on Sunday, 16 January. He is now slated to rejoin the Congress.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, Lourenco said:
"My voters and well wishers have told me to rejoin the Congress Party and I will listen to them. A decision will be taken in a 2-3 days. I am in touch with Michael Lobo."
Asked whether the Congress would be happy to take him back, Lourenco said that he would talk to the party and see.
Meanwhile, Michael Lobo, the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Calangute and Goa's state Cabinet minister, who joined the Congress party on 11 January, has also asked Reginaldo to rejoin the party.
"To strengthen the Congress party and to boost our purpose of forming Congress government in 2022 in Goa, I request Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco to join us back," wrote Lobo on Twitter.
Faced 'Unbelievable Backlash', Claims Lourenco
He added that he had faced “unbelievable” backlash from the people of his constituency as well as his friends, as he had hurt people by having taken this decision because of wrong judgement.
“The people who trusted me felt hurt. I say sorry from the bottom of my heart," Lourenco said, according to The Indian Express.
He further said that he had been promised a "new dawn" by the TMC and had thus left the Congress, but he had been forced to rethink his decision after people accused him of bringing an outside party into the state.
The former Congress MLA from Curtorim in south Goa also said that during his 20 days in TMC, he had fought hard but none of what he was told would happen had actually materialised.
TMC's Approach in Goa Wrong, Poor: AICC In-charge
Meanwhile, Congress in-charge in Goa Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the party is the only alternative to form a stable government in Goa.
"TMC's approach in Goa is very poor and their objective is wrong. People of Goa are going to reject TMC in the election. We are not forming any alliance with them," Gundu Rao said, according to news agency ANI.
The Assembly polls in the state are scheduled for 14 February.
(With inputs from The Indian Express and ANI.)
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