Of Course, Congress does not deserve such honest politicians who stood for the issues of Goa and Goans for whom it’s Goa and Curtorim first. If only Congress had retained such a clean image MLA and respected his presence in the Party, things could have differed. Reginald feels suffocated in Congress, and the worse is that the Party does not even care about it.
Reginald was the most eligible candidate for Leader of Opposition in 2017, but he was overlooked. Again when Babu Kavlekar quit Congress and joined BJP, Reginald’s name was not even considered for the post.
The man at least deserved to be appointed the GPCC president, but Congress did not consider him capable there too.
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
With the Assembly elections 2022 within five months, the MLA transfer season, which happens in sports before any tournament like IPL or ISL, has already begun in Goa’s political arena. Last week we saw senior Congress leader and former chief minister Luizinho Faleiro joining the Trinamool Congress.
Luizinho’s exit reduced Congress tally from five to four. In fact, the Congress’ tally has been reduced from 17 to four in 4.5 years.
While this was not enough, another Congress MLA, Alexio Reginald Lourenco, is set to join Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and could be the Party’s CM candidate in Goa.
Well, the move is shocking as Reginald has been one of the most honest MLAs the assembly has seen of late. He switched over from Save Goa Party in 2007, yes, but that was a merger, and he has been faithful to the Congress since then.
Of Course, Congress does not deserve such honest politicians who stood for the issues of Goa and Goans for whom it’s Goa and Curtorim first. If only Congress had retained such a clean image MLA and respected his presence in the Party, things could have differed. Reginald feels suffocated in Congress, and the worse is that the Party does not even care about it.
Reginald was the most eligible candidate for Leader of Opposition in 2017, but he was overlooked. Again when Babu Kavlekar quit Congress and joined BJP, Reginald’s name was not even considered for the post.
The man at least deserved to be appointed the GPCC president, but Congress did not consider him capable there too.
For the Congress, people like former MLA Agenlo Fernandes are more important, who was called to Delhi by Rahul Gandhi and convinced to stay back after news of his reported move to TMC.
Why is Congress not making any moves to convince Reginald to stay back? Are sincere MLAs not needed in the Party?
After Reginald’s exit, the Congress will be left with just three MLA’s – Pratapsing Rane, Ravi Naik and Digambar Kamat.
While there is no guarantee of Rane recontesting due to the age factor, Ravi, on the other hand, already has one foot in the BJP, while there is no clarity on what Digambar would do either.
So literally, in the run-up to the elections, the Congress would be left with no sitting MLAs on their side.
For the AAP, there could be no better development than this. The Arvind Kejriwal party has been in Goa for over five years now, but if they manage to induct Reginald, it would be their biggest catch so far and also in sync with the principle of inducting a clean image person.
However, the Party cannot rest now. If they want to make an impact, they will have to cash in on the clean image of Reginald to attract more leaders.
