Not offered RS seat, met Prashant Kishor before joining TMC: Luizinho Faleiro

Faleiro said that he was meeting senior TMC leaders, who attended the party’s first press conference in Panaji on Thursday, for the first time.

A day after he joined the Trinamool Congress, former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro said that political strategist Prashant Kishor had spoken to him “few days back” before he decided to sever his 40-year-old relationship with the Congress and join the TMC. Faleiro said that he was meeting senior TMC leaders, who attended the party’s first press conference in Panaji on Thursday, for the first time. He had earlier said that he had been in talks with Kishor-led I-PAC but not the TMC.

Faleiro and nine others from Goa, who joined the TMC in Kolkata on Thursday, addressed the media for the first time against a Goa TMC banner bearing party chief Mamata Banerjee’s face. TMC has entered the poll fray in Goa with the slogan ‘Goenchi Navi Sakal (Goa’s new dawn)’.

Senior TMC leaders such as Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, TMC Chief whip in Rajya Sabha Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Lok Sabha MP Prasun Banerjee, and West Bengal Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Manoj Tiwary also attended the press conference. They were, however, seated under the dais and did not address the press.

“They are senior leaders of not just TMC but great national leaders. But I had not met them. I met I-PAC. I met Mr Prashant Kishor of I-PAC, I met him just before I took the decision. We had an interaction. It was a very, very difficult decision for me to leave the Congress party but finally, I thought in the interest of Goa, in the interest of the country, defeating the BJP is the only way to go forward.”

While speculation was rife that Faleiro may be offered a Rajya Sabha MP seat from the TMC, he said no such offer had been made and he would think about it only if it was proposed. “TMC will take the views of the people from the respective areas, we will have the details and then we will decide who will be the face of that constituency, who will be the face for chief ministership and then we will inform you.”

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