Several Goa Congress members joined party in Mamata's presence, claims TMC

Prominent among the members who jumped ship to TMC included former AICC member Martha Saldanha

Members associated with the Congress in Goa joined the Trinamool Congress Party in the presence of visiting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is on a two-day visit to the coastal state, the TMC said on Tuesday.

Prominent among the members who jumped ship to TMC, months ahead of the Assembly polls, included former AICC member Martha Saldanha, who resigned from the Congress party, the TMC said in a release.

Banerjee, who is trying to project herself as the Opposition pivot against BJP, on Monday addressed a rally where the lone NCP MLA in Goa, Churchill Alemao, and his daughter joined the TMC. Banerjee, who had steered the TMC's victory against the principal opponent BJP in West Bengal polls, had said that an anti-BJP alliance had already formed in Goa under TMC and it is up to the Congress if it wants to join.

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During Banerjee's Goa visit on Monday, 31 members who owed allegiance to Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, respectively, joined the TMC, the release said. The TMC claimed that it was the "biggest such joining in the Banerjee-led party during recent times in the poll-bound state (Goa)".

Jose (Raju) Cabral, Congress leader from Nuvem assembly constituency in South Goa, quit the party to join TMC along with Samil Volvoikar, his party colleague from Cumbharjua constituency in North Goa, according to TMC. Several other Congress block members from the Cumbharjua constituency also joined TMC.

Former panchayat members from across Goa have also joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party, along with a former chairperson of Cuncolim Municipal Council and an ex-councillor of Mormugao Municipal Council and Rama Kankonkar of AAP, it said.

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