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Journalism of Courage
Kavita Kandolkar, the wife of the Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s Goa unit president Kiran Kandolkar, is the latest addition to the list of leaders exiting the TMC following its debacle in the recent state Assembly elections. A Zilla Panchayat member, Kavita resigned from the party Monday, saying, “The people did not accept the TMC and my supporters and workers insisted that I should resign”.
Kavita also sought to blame Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) for her move. “The other reason (for my quitting TMC) is Prashant Kishor and IPAC. The people upset with them come to our door. It bothers us. We have never seen or done anything like this. Respecting the views of my workers and expressing disappointment with IPAC, I have resigned,” she said. She, however, added that she had no grouse with the TMC or its supremo Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister. She charged that the dues of vendors and printers that the IPAC had hired in the run-up to the elections have not been cleared and that they had approached her with their grievances.
After his wife’s resignation, political circles in Goa are abuzz with talk of Kiran’s exit from the TMC, that now seems imminent. However, he is yet to announce his decision. He recently visited the TMC headquarters in Kolkata. In January this year, one month ahead of the Goa Assembly polls, he had dismissed the buzz about the state TMC committee being dissolved as “fake news” and even commended the IPAC’s campaign work.
Kiran has however been removed from his position as the Goa TMC chief as the party Monday dissolved its state unit in a bid to reorganise it, declaring that a new ad-hoc committee would be announced soon. TMC national spokesperson Saket Gokhale said, “The state committee has been dissolved and Kiran (Kandolkar) is no longer the president. There will be a complete overhaul of the state committee and the new members will be announced very soon.”
The TMC arrived in Goa towards the end of September 2021 and started poaching leaders and workers from several parties, especially the Congress. The first Congress legislator to join the TMC was former chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, now a TMC MP in the Rajya Sabha and the party’s national vice-president.
A prominent Bahujan leader and ex-MLA from Tivim, Kiran Kandolkar, had joined the TMC on November 20, 2021, defecting from the Goa Forward Party where he was the working president. The Kandolkars and 40 others, including their supporters, sarpanchs of five villages and members of village panchayats from Tivim and Aldona Assembly constituencies, were inducted into the TMC in the presence of Faleiro and TMC Lok Sabha MP and Goa in-charge Mahua Moitra. The TMC leadership appointed Kiran as the Goa unit chief on January 18.
In the Assembly polls, the TMC fielded Kiran from Aldona seat and Kavita from Tivim, but both of them lost. In fact, despite its high-decibel campaign, the party, which contested the polls in alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), failed to win a single seat in the state.
The exits from the TMC had begun before the polls. Among the first ten members to join the party with Faleiro in September 2021, former MGP MLA Lavoo Mamledar quit the party and contested the election on a Congress ticket from Marcaim. Lawyer Yatish Naik, who also joined the TMC with Faleiro and was made the party general secretary in January, also left it after he was denied the ticket from Saligao seat. He joined the BJP earlier this month.
While Congress legislator Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco joined the TMC even after being named as the Congress candidate from his Curtorim constituency, he made a quick exit from the party saying his decision had backfired. He won the election as an Independent candidate and supported the BJP that formed its government for the third consecutive time.
After the poll rout, the TMC held an election review meeting on March 26 to get feedback from party candidates, members and workers. A party leader said, “The TMC is in Goa for the long run and it will only be Goans who will lead it. In Goa, people often leave one party to join another. They may have left for various reasons, personal or political, but even at that point, people have unequivocally said that they have no issues with the TMC or its leaders. This is a good indicator that the party has handled things the way it should have.”
