In a big jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Assembly polls in Goa, sitting MLA Alina Saldanha on Thursday joined Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Taking to Twitter, the Delhi Chief Minister welcomed the Cortalim MLA into the AAP. "I am happy to welcome Alina Saldanha, sitting BJP MLA from Cortalim to Aam Aadmi Party. Together, we will take forward the legacy of Late Shri Matanhy Saldanha and steer Goa to a path of prosperity and corruption free governance," he wrote.
Earlier in the day, Saldanha said she resigned from the BJP because its "leadership in the state has forgetten party principles".
Saldanha, who submitted her resignation to Speaker of the assembly Rajesh Patnekar, is the first BJP lawmaker to resign from the state assembly, even as two Opposition MLAs have quit their respective parties to join the BJP ahead of 2022 polls.
"I have resigned and 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. The party seems to have forgotten all its principles and there is bedlam in the state. Nobody knows who's coming into the party, nobody knows who is going out of the party," Saldaha told reporters after her resignation.
Alina was elected to the state assembly in 2012 from the Cortalim assembly constituency, replacing her husband and noted environmentalist Mathany, who died in office as a BJP MLA and Tourism Minister the same year.
