Former Goa forest minister and sitting BJP MLA Alina Saldanha on Thursday resigned as legislator accusing the leadership in the state of forgetting party principles.
Saldanha, who submitted her resignation to Speaker of the Assembly Rajesh Patnekar, is the first BJP lawmaker to resign from the state Assembly, even as two Opposition MLAs have quit their respective parties to join the BJP ahead of 2022 polls.
“I have resigned and 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. The party seems to have forgotten all its principles and there is bedlam in the state. Nobody knows who’s coming into the party, nobody knows who is going out of the party,” Saldaha told reporters after her resignation.
Alina was elected to the state Assembly in 2012 from the Cortalim constituency, replacing her husband and noted environmentalist Mathany, who died in office as a BJP MLA and tourism minister the same year.
“If I am here today, it is because of late Mathany Saldanha (MS), who died of heart attack out of sheer exhaustion, having worked hard to win as BJP MLA. And if MS was here today, he would be fasting somewhere or the other, to protect his people and Goa,” she also said.
When asked if she was resigning because the BJP had not assured her a ticket to contest the Assembly Elections for the Cortalim constituency, Saldanha said: “I do not know. The party has not informed me yet. I have heard a lot, but the party has not informed me”.
Commenting on speculation about a likely entry into the Aam Aadmi Party, Saldanha said that she has not taken any decision on her immediate political future yet.
“I have not taken any decision. There are many parties in touch, they are all there, but I have to think, I have to consult, I will not do anything in haste, no matter who tries to persuade me. I will weigh the pros and cons. I will consult with the people of my constituency and accordingly I will take a decision,” she said, while adding that she would be contesting the 2022 Assembly polls
