Marcellus D’Souza

Apr 12: Leader of the Opposition in the Goa Assembly Michael Lobo and Calangute MLA has invited Congress leaders who have ‘deserted’ the Congress party and have since joined other parties to contest the recently held assembly elections to rejoin the Congress party.

The olive branch was held out, at the induction of the new Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) team. Michael Lobo made a specific reference to former Congress leader Reginaldo Lourenco of Curtorim constituency who was not allowed into the Congress party again after he had left the Congress and flirted with the TMC briefly. The Congress under Girish Chodankar had termed Reginaldo Lourenco as a ‘deserter’ when he attempted to rejoin the Congress party. Reginaldo Lourenco fought the assembly elections as an Independent candidate, in an open dare to the grand-old party, and won the seat by 8960 votes or 40.12% of the vote share.

Reginaldo Lourenco supported the Pramod Sawant 0.2 government on March 10 and presented his letter of support to Governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai. He was tipped to be inducted into the initial cabinet of 8 members who were sworn-in as minsters on March 28 or when the cabinet was expanded to accommodate 3 more MLAs on April 9 to complete the process of swearing-in the requite number of MLAs as ministers to 12. The name of Reginaldo Lourenco did not feature in either list and he continues to remain out of the cabinet.

The 59-year-old Reginaldo Lourenco is a three term member of the Goa Legislative Assembly for Curtorim. He was member of the following committees in the House till 2021. These include Estimates Committee; Member, Committee On Petitions; Member, Select Committee on The Goa Succession, Special Notaries and Inventory; Member, Committee On Public Undertakings; Member, Select Committee On The Goa Agricultural Tenancy (Amendment); Member, Select Committee On The Goa Land Use (Regulation, Amendment); Member, Select Committee On The Goa Mundkars (Protection from Eviction) and Member, Select Committee On The Goa Public Service Guarantee.
Michael opined, “Reginaldo has to take a decision and we will try and persuade him to join the Congress. He will be taken back with the same experience and seniority in the Congress”.

Nuvem MLA Alexio Sequeira, had disapproved of the way the Congress party had treated Reginaldo Lourenco and shunted him out from the party for his action of joining the TMC briefly.

Another member Michael Lobo sent a veiled hint was to, Luizinho Faleiro who quit the Congress and joined the TMC. He is today a Rajya Sabha member of the TMC. Falerio had served the Congress as General Secretary since 2013 and was In-charge of the 7 North Eastern States of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura. In his resignation letter address to Congress President Sonia Gandhi he accused the party of being led by a “coterie” of leaders whose priority is personal gains.

Benaulim strong man Churchill Alemao, who had joined the TMC after quitting the Congress but lost the Benaulim seat, was invited back into the Congress fold. Churchill Alemao’s nephew and son of Joaquim Alemao, has been appointed as working president of the GPCC which took charge on Monday in the presence of P. Chidambaram, former finance minister and Election Observer for Goa and Goa State in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao.

Michael said, “Many Congress party leaders have left the party and felt that new parties would give them opportunities and they would take the party to a higher position. Many people are now agitated with the new parties. I appeal to these leaders to re-join the Congress and strengthen the party at grass roots”.
Speaking at the handing over charge of the new GPCC team, Digambar Kamat, former Goa chief minister and permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) said, “Though the Congress has not been in power for the last 10 years, party workers who remained form and worked with unity are the backbone of the party”.