Goa Forward Party (GFP) working president Kiran Kandolkar quit the party on Saturday in protest against a possible alliance with the Congress in the upcoming Assembly polls and joined the Trinamool Congress.
Mr Kandolkar was welcomed in Trinamool by the party MP Mahua Moitra and Trinamool national vice president Luizinho Faleiro.
Mr Kandolkar, a former BJP MLA, had joined GFP in 2020. Incidentally, he was declared the GFP candidate from the Aldona seat for the Assembly polls scheduled early next year.
"But the Congress has already started campaigning there. I feel Congress will ditch the Vijai Sardesai-led party at the last minute. I feel that parties like Congress and AAP are not serious about defeating BJP," he told reporters.
Mr Kandolkar said only the Mamata Banerjee-led party is capable of defeating the BJP in the next year's polls.
"Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal can't defeat Narendra Modi. But Mamata Banerjee has shown in West Bengal that she can fight back and hand BJP a drubbing," he added.
In the 2017 Goa Assembly polls, the Congress had won the highest 17 seats in the 40-member House restricting the BJP at 13. However, the BJP allied with regional parties - GFP and MGP - to form a government under the late Manohar Parrikar.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Alliance with Congress A Mistake, Cost Us Seats, Says Ex BJP Ally In Goa, Blame Game Begins Between Congress And Ally Over Poor Poll Performance "Exposed" In Goa: Regional Party Slams Trinamool, MP Counters With... Air India Flight From Paris Diverted To Jaipur, Fliers Sent To Delhi On Bus Explained: Why Delhi's AQI Was 494 Today But International Monitor Said 1,600 Ukraine Hits Russia With Long-Range US Missile After Biden's Approval Amid Concerns Of World War 3, Sweden Gives Citizens Survival Tips "Exposed": BJP Alleges Bitcoin Scam In Maharashtra Poll, Supriya Sule Reacts What Iraq Plans To Do For The 1st Time Since Saddam Hussein's Rule In 1987 Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.