Goa: Boxing assn's V-P Lenny Da Gama, footballer Franco join TMC

Panaji/Kolkata: Boxing champion Lenny Da Gama and former Indian football defender Denzil Franco joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday. Both of them will be members of the party's Goa unit. The development comes days after former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro joined TMC in presence of the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

The sports personalities joined TMC at an event held in Saligao Assembly constituency in North Goa district in the presence of Bengal minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Manoj Tiwari and TMC MP Prasun Banerjee. Da Gama is the Goa Boxing Association vice-president.

The new additions is a significant stride on the part of the Mamata Banerjee-led party in its efforts to make inroads in Goa in the upcoming Assembly polls. Faleiro, during his official joining the TMC on Wednesday, along with nine other leaders had said that he joined the TMC with a mission to defeat the BJP and its divisive policies, culture of intolerance and vengeance. "Goa is going backwards and facing an economic meltdown," he had stated.

Faleiro maintained that Banerjee's party has plans to contest all 40 seats in next year's Goa Assembly polls on its own, without forging any alliance.

He said that I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) has been conducting a survey in Goa, the results of which would be available in the next 10-15 days, after which the detailed roadmap for elections in Goa would be prepared.