Ex-Goa MLA quits TMC, accuses party of trying to create communal divide

Nearly three months after joining the Trinamool Congress, former Goa legislator Lavoo Mamlatdar on Friday resigned from the party, accusing it of being communal and trying to create a divide between Hindus and Christians for votes ahead of the state Assembly polls.

The former Ponda MLA had joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party in the last week of September.

He was among the first few local leaders in the state to join the TMC, which has decided to contest all 40 seats in the Goa assembly polls, due in February 2022.

He also alleged that the TMC was collecting the data of people in the name of rolling out a welfare scheme for women in the state if it is voted to power after the elections.

Talking to reporters after resigning from the party, Mamlatdar said, "I had joined the TMC because I was fully impressed with Mamata Banerjee-led party's performance in West Bengal (assembly polls held earlier this year)."

"I was under the impression that TMC is a very secular party. But from whatever I have noticed in the last 15-20 days, I came to know that it is worse than the Bharatiya Janata Party," he alleged.

The TMC has forged a pre-poll alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, of which Mamlatdar was an MLA between 2012 and 2017.

He alleged that the TMC was trying to divide Hindu and Christian votes.

"As part of their pre-poll alliance, they want that the Christian votes should go to the TMC and Hindu votes to the MGP...The TMC is a communal party, which is trying to disturb the secular fabric," he alleged.

He accused the TMC of trying to collect the data of people in the name of its Griha Laxmi scheme.

"We have found that under its Laxmi Bhandar scheme introduced in West Bengal, only Rs 500 is given, while here (in Goa) they are promising Rs 5,000 to women under the Griha Laxmi scheme, which is next to impossible. The promise of the scheme is entirely to collect data from Goa," he said.