Panaji: BJP Goa MLA Alina Saldanha on Thursday resigned from the House claiming that it is not longer the same party which she joined after the demise of her husband in the year 2012.
The 69-year-old MLA tendered her resignation to Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly on Thursday reducing the total strength of the 40 member house to 35.
Congress MLAs Luizinho Faleiro, Ravi Naik, Goa Forward Party MLA Jayesh Salgaonkar and Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte has resigned from the House during recent times.
Saldanha, is a wife of late Mathany Saldanha, a former minister in Manohar Parrikar cabinet, who had died in the year 2012. After his death, Alina had contested the by-election on BJP ticket from Cortalim Assembly segment. She had also won the election on BJP ticket in the year 2017.
“I have resigned for valid reasons. I have resigned because the party that late Mathany Saldanha had joined and after his demise I stepped into his shoes, is no longer the same party,” she told reporters in Panaji.
She said that the party have forgotten all its principals and there is bedlam in the state.
“Nobody knows who is coming in the party, nobody knows who is going out of the party,” Saldanha said.
The former state environment minister said that she took the decision to quit the party after attending one of the party meeting on Wednesday (yesterday) in which there was a certain sentence that was made by one of the stalwart” leader of the party that made me realized that it is time that I leave the party.”
On asked whether she is joining Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), she said that she has not taken any decision. “All the parties are in touch with me. I have to think, I have to consult. I will consult no matter who tries to persuade me I will weight pros and cons. I will consult with the people of constituency,” she said.
