TMC’s RS MP Luizinho Faleiro resigns; party to announce new candidate

Kolkata: A day after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) lost its national party status, the former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro resigned from his post as TMC Rajya Sabha member citing health reasons.

Faleiro submitted his resignation to the Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar. Although his resignation was tendered supposedly on grounds of ill health, sources said that the main reason is fallout with the party ever since TMC’s debacle in the Goa Assembly elections.

The TMC stated that it will announce a new candidate for the seat vacated by Falerio. TMC also said that the party had asked him to resign.

“We wish him good health and happiness. The party had asked him to resign from his Rajya Sabha seat, and it is good that he abided by the party’s decision,” TMC MP Santanu Sen said. However, to a query why he was asked to resign, Sen refused to comment, saying it was an “internal matter of the party”.

It is learnt that the party’s top leaders were not happy with the performance of the MP and that he was allegedly not following certain orders from the top. Faleiro was being asked to resign for quite some time but it did not materialise until Tuesday. However, it is not clear whether the MP has also quit the party but sources said he has “cut off” all ties with Trinamool.

Faleiro was sent to the Rajya Sabha by the TMC in 2021. To make space for him, the party had asked its former Rajya Sabha MP Arpita Ghosh to quit. Faleiro joined the TMC in September 2021 after quitting the Congress party. He was then appointed the national vice president of the party.

However, the gulf between him and TMC was created after the party failed to win seats in the Goa Assembly polls in February 2022. It managed to secure about 5.2 per cent votes, thus diminishing its chances of spreading its voter base outside Bengal which was necessary for TMC after it received an initial nudge from the Election Commission of India post-2019 Lok Sabha polls regarding why its national party status should not be revoked. Faleiro had even refused to contest the 2022 Assembly election from Fatorda against Goa Forward Party’s Vijai Sardesai. This further widened the gulf between him and TMC, and soon after he was also sidelined from party work, party insiders said.

However, the resignation of Faleiro has also raised the question surrounding TMC’s other Rajya Sabha MP, Sushmita Dev who too joined the party from Congress. With TMC also drawing a blank in Tripura, sources said she may soon succumb to a fate similar to that of Faleiro.