Day after Faleiro's exit, Goa Congress recruits ex Minister

Panaji (IANS) Former Sports Minister in a BJP-led coalition government Avertano Furtado joined the Congress on Tuesday, a day after ex-Chief Minister and sitting Navelim MLA resigned from both his legislatorship and the party's primary membership, leaving the Congress red-faced.

Furtado, arch-rival of Faleiro, joined the Congress in a formal function at the state Congress headquarters. While Furtado was elected from Navelim in the 2012 state assembly polls, he lost to Faleiro in the 2017 state assembly elections.

"When news spread that Faleiro was leaving Congress to join TMC, my supporters flocked to me and said why don't you join Congress? People of Navelim are really disheartened because our MLA has disowned us. He left the constituency like a hot cake," Furtado told a press conference at the state Congress headquarters in Panaji.

"People of Navelim will never forgive him for this. They realise that supporting him for four and a half years was useless. They now say, that if he (Faleiro) thinks of coming back, we will teach him a lesson," Furtado said, soon after he was inducted into the party in the presence of state Congress president Girish Chodankar, Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat and All India Congress Committee in-charge of Goa Dinesh Gundu Rao.

Earlier on Tuesday, Faleiro along with two Goa Congress office bearers and several other supporters left for Kolkata, where he is likely to be inducted into the Trinamool Congress soon.