Prashant Kishor responsible for TMC's defeat in Goa, alleges state TMC chief as he resigns
Panaji, Apr 27: Goa Trinamool Congress chief Kiran Kandolkar resigned on Wednesday and alleged that political strategist Prashant Kishor was responsible for the "humiliating" defeat of the Mamata Banerjee-led party in the recent state Assembly polls who also tried to "blackmail" the Congress.
Addressing a press conference, Kandolkar claimed that Kishor ended up helping BJP to form the government after the polls.
The resignation of Kandolkar and two other leaders, who had contested on the TMC symbol, came as another setback for the Mamata Banerjee-led party which is struggling to retain its flock in Goa since the poll debacle.
The TMC drew a blank in its maiden electoral outing in Goa.
"Prashant Kishor was responsible for the TMC's humiliating defeat in Goa polls. He was in Goa to blackmail the Congress and eventually ended up helping the BJP to form the government again," Kandolkar alleged.
He, however, didn't elaborate on the "blackmail" charge against Kishor, who recently declined to join Congress.
Kandolkar, along with Tarak Arolkar, and Sandeep Vazarkar have resigned from the primary membership of the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
Days earlier, Kandolkar's wife Kavita Kandolkar had also quit the TMC, owing to "pressure" from her supporters.
Soon after Kavita Kandolkar's resignation move, the Goa TMC tweeted that the party was restructuring the entire AITC Goa State Committee with immediate effect.
Kiran Kandolkar had quit as the working president of the Goa Forward Party to join the TMC in the run-up to the polls held in February this year.
Kandolkar and his wife had contested on TMC tickets from Aldona and Thivim constituencies, respectively, but lost.
We did what we felt right at that time. It's human to commit a mistake. We did commit a mistake, Kandolkar said when asked if joining the TMC was a mistake.
Calling for all the Opposition parties to unite to defeat the BJP, Kandolkar conceded that the split of votes went in favour of the BJP.
Kandolkar said he would neither join any political party nor float a new one.
I don't want to split anti-BJP votes further, he added.
The BJP won 20 seats in the 40-member House and returned to power with the support of two MLAs of MGP and three Independents.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
