PANAJI: Ahead of the state polls, Goa BJP MLA and former minister Alina Saldanha resigned from the assembly as well as the ruling party on Thursday and later joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in New Delhi.
Alina Saldanha, a two-time MLA, resigned claiming the BJP was no longer the party which she had joined after the demise of her husband, a former minister who was associated with the saffron outfit, in 2012.
Hours later, she flew to New Delhi along with local leaders of the AAP, including its Goa convener Rahul Mhambrey, and joined the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, which is looking to make an impact in the state's electoral politics.
AAP national convener Kejriwal welcomed Saldanha into the party fold.
The 69-year-old MLA tendered her resignation to the Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly, reducing the effective strength of the 40-member house to 35.
Alina Saldanha is the wife of late BJP leader Mathany Saldanha, who had served as a minister in the Manohar Parrikar cabinet.
After his death in 2012, Alina Saldanha contested and won the by-election on a BJP ticket from the Cortalim assembly segment represented by her husband.
She retained the seat in the 2017 polls.
"I have resigned for valid reasons. I have resigned because the party that late Mathany Saldanha had joined and after his demise I stepped into his shoes, is no longer the same party," she told reporters in Panaji.
She said the ruling party has "forgotten" all its principles and there was "bedlam" in its ranks in the state, where polls are due in early 2022.
"Nobody knows who is coming in the party, nobody knows who is going out of the party," Alina Saldanha said.
The former state environment minister said she took the decision to quit the BJP after attending a meeting on Wednesday wherein "a sentence of a party stalwart made me realise it is time for me to leave the party".
Prior to her, Luizinho Faleiro, Ravi Naik recently quit as Congress MLAs, legislator Jayesh Salgaonkar resigned from the Goa Forward Party, while Rohan Khaunte quit as an independent legislator.
In the 2017 polls, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party winning 17 seats.
However, the BJP then quickly forged an alliance with some regional parties and independents to form a government in the coastal state.