Trinamool names ex-Goa CM Luizinho Faleiro for Rajya Sabha from West Bengal
With an eye on the 2022 Goa Assembly polls, the TMC on Saturday named Luizinho Faleiro as its candidate for the upcoming bypoll to a Rajya Sabha seat from West Bengal. Faleiro, the former chief minister of Goa, ended his decades-long association with the Congress and joined the TMC in September.
He was appointed as the party's national vice president last month.
"We are extremely pleased to nominate @luizinhofaleiro to the Upper House of the Parliament. We are confident that his efforts towards serving the nation shall be appreciated widely by our people!" the TMC said on Twitter.
The November 29 bypoll to the RS seat was necessitated following the resignation of TMC MP Arpita Ghosh from the Upper House.
The Trinamool Congress, after a stunning victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year, is trying to expand its footprint in BJP-ruled Goa and Tripura.
Apart from Faleiro, the party has also roped in tennis legend Leander Paes and many other dignitaries.
Elections to the 40-member Goa Assembly are likely to be held early next year.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had visited Goa last month to strengthen the party's organisation in the coastal state.
The party had on October 5 released a "chargesheet" against the incumbent BJP government in the western state and its predecessors.
The TMC "charge sheet" claimed Goa was the eighth worst among all states in India in terms of unemployment, and its economy was in such a precarious condition that the average citizen can't buy a house in the state.
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