`Together, we will usher in a new dawn for Goa`, says West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee ahead of her visit

TMC supremo`s visit comes ahead of the elections to the 40-member Goa assembly early next year.

New Delhi: Ahead of her two-day visit to Goa, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday (October 23, 2021) called upon all individuals, organisations and political parties to join forces to 'defeat' the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 'its divisive agenda'. 

Taking to Twitter, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo said that the people of Goa have suffered enough over the last 10 years.

"As I prepare for my maiden visit to Goa on 28th, I call upon all individuals, organisations and political parties to join forces to defeat the BJP and their divisive agenda. The people of Goa have suffered enough over the last 10 years," she said.

"Together, we will usher in a new dawn for Goa by forming a new govt that will truly be a govt of the people of Goa and committed to realising their aspirations," Mamata added.

Her October 28 visit comes ahead of the elections to the 40-member Goa assembly early next year.

Although TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had ruled out the possibility of allying with any other party for the upcoming assembly polls in Goa, the party supremo is likely to meet leaders of smaller political outfits in the state.

This is noteworthy that ex-Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro had recently ended his decades-long association with the Congress and joined the TMC. Many others from the party followed suit.

TMC, notably, after its landslide victory in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, is trying to increase its footprint nationally and has made inroads in BJP-ruled Goa and Tripura.

The move, however, has evoked derision from the BJP, which called it a sheer "political tourism".

"The weather in Goa now is apt for tourists. She is going there for a vacation," BJP state spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said.

Earlier this month, the relationship between the Congress and the TMC touched a new low after the ruling party in West Bengal took a dig at Rahul Gandhi's defeat in Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, wondering whether the Congress could erase the loss just with a Twitter trend.

The relationship between the two was strained after TMC mouthpiece 'Jago Bangla' claimed Mamata Banerjee, and not Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, is the face of the opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

(With agency inputs)