PANAJI: Former tourism minister Nilkanth Halarnkar and former chief spokesperson of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Goa Trajano D’Mello on Saturday ‘returned back’ to the Congress party along with nine other office bearers of the state unit of the NCP.
Welcoming the leaders, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Luizinho Faleiro said that NCP is an offshoot of the Congress party and has been regarded as a part of the Congress family by all the Congressmen.
“When family members return back to the family, it is a moment of great joy and today, the return of Nilkanth, Trajano and other leaders gives me a lot of happiness,” expressed Faleiro.
Eleven office bearers of the 21-member executive committee of the NCP joined the Congress party along with thousands of their supporters, paving the way for more leaders in the NCP to join Congress.
Faleiro said that there will be an exodus of people so as to come together in Congress as a vibrant Goan secular force to save Goa and bring the state back on the track of development and progress and to ensure that there is harmony amongst all sections of the society.
He said while the state is in ruins due to the bad policies and wrongdoings of the BJP government, there is a need to take care of the state. Goans once again need to be given a new ray of hope that the state can once again flourish and move ahead with progress. “The entry of the leaders along with their supporters will strengthen the secular forces. The BJP knows that they will face the wrath of the people and will be defeated in the next assembly elections,” he said.
The GPCC chief said that the party has been meeting with leaders from all sections of the society and they have expressed their desire to join the Congress party and consolidate the secular votes against the misrule of the BJP in the last four years. “Those who speak of the gatbandhan (grand alliance), this is the gatbandhan,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Leader of the Opposition Pratapsing Rane said, “The Congress party has steered the nation, which was a nascent republic, in the last 65 years through ups and downs.” He said the party invites all the like-minded people to come together and make Goa the best state in the country.
Taking a dig at BJP, Halarnkar said that selfish and corrupt people should not be allowed to come to power. Stating that his return to the Congress party was a step to strengthen and build a single platform, Halarnkar said, “We will not be able to provide solutions by working on different secular platforms. We cannot play with the people with issues of seat-sharing and tickets for candidature. Therefore, we decided that by coming under a single umbrella, we will give a better state to Goans.”
