Goa Congress renegade to contest on Trinamool ticket

Margao (Goa), March 25 (IANS) The Trinamool Congress announced its Lok Sabha election debut in Goa Tuesday, signing up a tainted, renegade Congress leader to contest the South Goa seat.

West Bengal Sports and Transport Minister Madan Mitra said former Goa chief minister Churchill Alemao would contest the South Goa seat for the Trinamool Congress.

Mitra was addressing a press conference in Margao, about 40 km from the state capital Panaji.

"Alemao will be our candidate for South Goa," Mitra said, adding that he would file his nomination papers Wednesday. He will take on the Congress' Aleixo Reginaldo and the BJP's leader Narendra Savoikar.

Alemao quit the Congress last week, complaining that the party did not give the South Goa ticket to his daughter Valanka, the state Youth Congress president.

"I will pull together all the secular votes. My party has betrayed me," said Alemao, who has left the Congress for the fourth time over the last two decades.

Alemao has a tainted history and has been booked for Foreign Exchange Management Act violations and corruption.

This is Trinamool's second foray in Goa. During the 2012 assembly election, the party contested for 20 out of the 40 assembly seats but was routed.