— former Congressman Aleixo Reginaldo who jumped Congress to join the Goa Trinamool Congress

HEAVY WEIGHTS IN THE TRINAMOOL CONGRESS ROLL CALL…. Former Congressman Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco is now with TMC! The three times Curtorim legislator’s justification for quitting Congress is that he was not appreciated and it is important to be on the ruling side to get anything done in Goa! With him are TMC leaders Kiran Khandolkar and others.

IT was an interesting press conference because it revealed the ambition for power burning in the hearts of the younger generation of politicians! Presumably, one may get aboard the original grassroots party or mother party of the Congress of Nehru, Indira, Rajiv, Sonia…learn the inside out of politics on board the “Titanic” Indian National Congress — but the glass ceilings may not be broken by a younger, more ambitious lot of politicians!
At least not while several of the old war horses refuse to retire but still pine to sit on the hot seat of chief ministers and prime ministers to wield the reins of power. At least here is one more political lesson to learn. There is no shortage of those who want to play Judas with or without the 40 pieces of silver. The silver is marginal, the real gold is the gold of power which young activist-social worker politicians work and aspire for.
This seems to be rue of former Congressman Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco, who says he has proved his mettle through three terms as MLA and became quite the blue-eyed boy of the Congress. He was no sleeping MLA who had made his pile, he carried out many good works of development in his constituency of Curtorim – so much so the people loved him, and from the confessions he made at his maiden Goa Trinamool Conference on December 27, 2021, “it was all my own work!”
From the sound of it the Congress is a complacent, sossegad party which has lost its ability to fight back, a toothless tiger maybe! It is content to be in the Opposition playing second fiddle to the ruling BJP which stole its public mandate to form the government in 2017. Say it was a marriage of convenience – in politics all marriages are marriages of convenience! That explains the gathering pace of all the vile party hopping which has become almost legal tender because most of us can’t keep pace with it currently these Goa pre-elections days and will probably continue to happen after the elections too.
In politics ditching one party for another is called being ambitious and especially so if you’re doing it after long innings and become seasoned and tempered in a first “marriage.” Then, if what Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco is saying is true, you run into trouble when the people of your constituency who come to you to facilitate jobs, fix electricity, water, education, this and that for son, daughter, father, mother and so and so on. You get the idea. As an MLA your powers are limited but as chief minister you will be in power and your word will be your command!
And consider that if you hang around in the Congress for too long you may grow old before you will get anywhere near the hot seat, your chances will become more remote than going to the moon. You must understand that nowadays young MLAs want to go places as quickly as they can – never mind whose hand they have to bite off in the process of going up the ladder of being the ruler rather than the slave.
To be fair Congress party MLA Reginaldo Lourenco walked the talk from all accounts and became a hero of sorts, he was never afraid to take on issues even with Parrikar in the assembly, he wasn’t one to keep quiet when something bothered him….he was wide awake while everyone else may be in slumber.
The common perception is that the INC has a setting with the BJP! Reginaldo Laurenco admitted that his decision had come as a surprise to many of his constituency voters, “but I have taken the decision to join the TMC for my people and my constituency and state. Now only time will tell (whether he took the right decision or wrong decision in quitting the Congress and especially when the party had already given him a ticket to contest the forthcoming elections).”
His frustration, he confided, was that after two terms serving the people of his constituency with the Congress, “I was not able to meet the aspirations of my people…my demands were not fulfilled even when it came to funds for posters to run a campaign! Everything was a problem!” In comparison he has seen that the TMC “is a party which has fire, integrity, infrastructure, it finds out things…does surveys, takes suggestions.”
To reiterate, Reginaldo Laurenco, left it at only time will tell whether he has taken the right decision or not; and yes, he would feel better if the Congress stopped tarnishing his image in the eyes of his constituency people.
This is to say even Jesus too never said a word when Judas betrayed him for 40 pieces of silver or whatever. Politics has become a confusing wilderness of too many defectors or…er …Judas. It’s like a free for all in which citizens have to stretch their imagination countless times to sieve fact from fiction, half-fiction or non-fiction! Others present at the TMC press conference included TMC stalwarts Kiran Kandolkar, Pratibha Borkar and Ethel Lobo.
TMC’s roll-call of new joinee members continues to grow by leaps and bounds with the latest names coming in from advocate Seoula Vas, Sandeep Arjun Vazarkar (former vice-president of BJP (Porvorim) along with six panchs and one sarpanch, also former INC general secretary of Cumbarjua block Ambar Amonkar with several other BJP and INC committee members. Add to this the names of former GPCC state secretary and Sancoale ZP member Mariano Gilbert Rodrigues and Margao Municipal Council’s Ghanshyam Shirodker…
There’s no stopping the exodus mainly from Congress and a few from the BJP. It may be noted that Ghanashyam Shirodker, who won the civic polls for the third time in a row, left the Congress after it failed to consider his candidature despite him being Digambar Kamat’s long-time aide and loyalist.
The TMC’s trump card, the Griha Laxmi scheme to empower women with money power – Rs5,000 every month to the woman head of every household in Goa – the list has reportedly crossed a lakh registrations within 12 days, with maximum registrations coming from Ponda, Panaji, Aldona, Benaulim and Vasco da Gama. Is it the first time that Goa is witnessing such large-scale registrations happening and that too digitally? TMC growing army of spokespersons continue to promise a new dawn for Goa if it wins the elections. So now only time will tell depending on who or which party the majority of Goans vote for whom… “don fulancho kaal, Goenchi navi sakal” (two flowers) or the kamaal ka phool (lotus) or the haath (hand) – or Arvind Kejriwal’s jhadoo (broom)!