Boxing champion Lenny Da Gama and former Indian football defender Denzil Franco on Saturday joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Goa. The two sports stars will be members of the party’s Goa unit.

The political development comes after former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro switched to the Mamata Banerjee-led party in Kolkata.

Luizinho Faleiro had said as much when he officially joined the TMC on Wednesday, along with nine other leaders.

The new additions to the TMC indicate its ambitions to stick its flag in Goa in the upcoming assembly polls, and gradually become a national-level party that can go toe-to-toe with the BJP in the 2024 general elections.

“I have joined the TMC with a mission to defeat the BJP and its divisive policies, culture of intolerance and vengeance. Goa is going backwards today and facing an economic meltdown. That state is suffering under BJP's rule,” he stated.

“I have joined the TMC with a mission to defeat the BJP and its divisive policies, culture of intolerance and vengeance. Goa is going backwards today and facing an economic meltdown. That state is suffering under BJP's rule,” he stated.

The former Congress MLA also said that Bengal-based party plans to contest all 40 seats in next year's Goa assembly election on its own, without forging any alliance.

While the Congress and the BJP will be the top contenders to watch -- having finished first and second respectively in the seat tally during the 2017 polls -- the TMC will have to face-off against another relatively new entrant: the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Arvind Kejriwal's AAP has thrown its hat in the ring ahead of the polls, and has promised free power up to 300 units per month and 80 per cent jobs for locals if voted to power.

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