Goa BJP MLA Alina Saldanha resigns from seat and party, says 'bedlam' in coastal state

Panaji: Goa BJP MLA Alina Saldanha resigned from the state Assembly as well as the party on Thursday, ahead of the Goa polls due next year, claiming the BJP was no longer the same organisation which she joined after her husband’s death in 2012. Saldanha, 69, submitted her resignation at the Goa Assembly Speaker’s office. Apart from Saldanha, four other legislators of different parties have resigned from the 40-member House in the recent past. Alina Saldanha’s husband Mathany Saldanha, who had been a minister in the Manohar Parrikar-led cabinet, died in 2012, following which she contested the by-election on the BJP’s ticket from Cortalim Assembly segment and won. She had also won the 2017 Assembly election on the BJP’s ticket. “I have resigned for valid reasons… 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 claimed the ruling party has forgotten all its principles and there is “bedlam” in the coastal state. “Nobody knows who is coming in or going out of the party,” Alina Saldanha said. The former state environment minister said she took the decision to leave the BJP after attending a party meeting on Wednesday wherein “a sentence of a party stalwart made me realise that it is time I leave the party”. Asked if she will join the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Alina Saldanha said she has not taken any decision. All parties are in touch with me. I have to think, I have to consult…no matter who tries to persuade me, I will weigh the pros and cons. I will consult with the people of my constituency, she said. Prior to her, Luizinho Faleiro, Ravi Naik recently quit as Congress MLAs, Jayesh Salgaonkar resigned from the Goa Forward Party, while Rohan Khaunte quit as an independent legislator. In the 2017 state Assembly polls, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats. However, the BJP then quickly forged an alliance with some regional parties and independents to form government in the coastal state.