GT Team
Ahead of the Goa assembly elections scheduled on February 2022, Churchill Alemao, Goa's lone Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA, on Monday claimed that he has merged the legislative unit of the party into the All India Trinamool Congress.
Alemao, who submitted a copy of the merger resolution to the office of Speaker of the state legislative Assembly Rajesh Patnekar, said that he would be recognised as a Trinamool Congress MLA after the state legislative department issues a formal notification acknowledging his merger.
"I will be an MLA of TMC after notification is issued in two to three days," Alemao said, after submitting his resolution to the Speaker's office.
Since Alemao is the only NCP MLA in Goa, he represents 100 percent of the party's legislative wing, therefore, making the merger valid as per 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
“More than two-third of the members can merge the party's legislative unit. Here, I am hundred per cent,” he said.
The development comes at a time when West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress founder Mamata Banerjee is in Goa on a two-day visit to the poll-bound state.
Asked why he chose to merge the NCP legislative unit into the Trinamool Congress, Alemao told IANS, "I waited for a year for the NCP-Congress merger to happen.
"Only Mamata Banerjee can fight the BJP. Congress cannot make that change happen," said Alemao, a former Chief Minister of Goa.