After actor Nafisa Ali in the morning, tennis star Leander Paes joins TMC today in Goa
TMC inducts three celebrities in a day – Actress Nafisa Ali, former tennis player Leander Paes, and activist-entrepreneur Mrinalini Deshprabhu
All India Trinamool Congress has pressed the accelerator to achieve its target of becoming a national party. The party supremo, Mamata Banerjee, has visited Goa yesterday to boost the election campaign for the upcoming state assembly polls.
And today, TMC has inducted two celebrities – actress Nafisa Ali and former tennis player Leander Paes, in the presence of Banerjee. Activist and entrepreneur Mrinalini Deshprabhu also joined TMC today with Ali.
Several MPs like Mahua Moitra, Babul Supriyo are right now tilling the political land for TMC. Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien had set up an office in Panjim to monitor the campaign in Goa. He is aided by a 200-member IPAC team.
Mamata Banerjee also had an interactive session with the fisherman community today.
TMC’s celeb expansion
Former tennis player, Leander Paes becomes the third celebrity to join the party after actress Nafisa Ali and Goan businessman Mrinalini Deshprabhu as Trinamool Congress looks to gain ground in the smallest state of India. All three of them were welcomed to the party in the presence of Mamata Banerjee ahead of the 2022 state assembly polls. Mrinalini joined the party along with Nafisa Ali.
“I have represented the country and served it through tennis. Now I have retired from tennis, and I want to serve people through politics and make a difference,” he said at the joining ceremony as he reminisced his interaction with Banerjee when he was 14 years old in Bengal.
Meanwhile, Nafisa Ali had joined Congress in 2009, after a brief stint with the Samajwadi Party. She had fought against Mamata Banerjee from a South Kolkata constituency. “The reason why AITC is in Goa is that Congress has let its voters down – and BJP is here by default. Mamata Banerjee is a strong and people’s leader,” she said after joining.
Better implementation of policies for Goans
During a media interaction, Mamata Banerjee has said that her government has laid a lot of pro-people and women schemes in Bengals. Though she denied becoming the chief minister of Goa, she promised to bring her pro-people policies to Goa. “I will not be the chief minister of Goa but will make sure that there is no corruption, proper implementation of the schemes in the state if we come to power,” she said at the press interaction.
The state is facing an economic crisis and job loss due to the closure of mining facilities. “We will make policies to restart the mining process,” she said, adding, “We don’t have a problem with people copying our schemes. But they have to implement it as we did in Bengal.”
Banerjee further stated that TMC does not divide people based on religion or caste. “We unite people, unlike other parties. BJP has no right to give me a character certificate. They should decide their character certificate first,” she said on BJP branding her as anti-Hindu.
Goan assembly is a 40 member assembly house. Of which, BJP has 17, and Congress has 15 seats, respectively. The battle grows complex with AAP expanding their base in Goa for the upcoming election. They had secured a little over 6% votes in the 2017 election.
