Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: In yet another embarrassment to Congress, their Curtorim MLA Alexio Reginaldo has finally resigned from the primary membership of the party as well as membership of the Goa Assembly.
Lourenco submitted his resignation to the Goa legislature secretary at Porvorim.
The move is shocking to everyone as Congress had declared Reginaldo as their candidate for the upcoming assembly elections only four days back.
AICC recently appointed Alexio Reginaldo as the Working President of the Congress after his reported move of joining the Aam Aadmi Party.
Reginaldo was not available for comments despite repeated attempts made till the filing of this story.
According to sources, Reginaldo has left for Kolkata this afternoon, where he is expected to join the TMC in the presence of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
Lourenco was earlier in talks with BJP and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), but Congress had convinced him not to quit the party.
The party leaders Girish Chodankar and Digambar Kamat met Reginaldo on his birthday to convince him, and after the phone call with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the MLA had decided to stay back.
With Lourenco’s resignation, the strength of Congress in the legislative Assembly has been reduced to only two MLAs, including the leader of the opposition and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and Congress senior Poriem MLA Pratapsingh Rane.
In the 2017 Goa Assembly election, Congress had won 17 seats. By 2022, they have managed to sustain only two seats.
On December 16, the Congress released its first list of eight candidates for the Goa polls, fielding former chief minister Digambar Kamat from the Margao constituency.
The other candidates are Sankalp Amonkar from Marmugao, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco from Curtorim, Yuri Alemao from Cuncolim assembly constituency and Altone D’Costa has been fielded from the Quepem seat