Panaji, Sep 15 (PTI) Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) leader Derek O’Brien on Thursday admitted that his party committed the mistake of seeking votes from the people of Goa during the Assembly polls earlier this year without actually building the organisation at the local level.
Talking to reporters, he said that putting up hoarding appealing people to vote for the party without its organisational presence in the state was wrong.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party, which contested the Goa Assembly elections held in February this year, had failed to open its account. It had fought the polls in alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained power in the state by winning 20 seats in the 40-member House.
“Have we made any mistake in building our organisation? Of course we have. We never claimed that we know everything,” O’Brien said.
The TMC had done a mistake in Goa as it did not build the organisation before the election, he said.
“All those hoardings were our mistake. Therefore, we are now building the organisation (in the state) and building it from the grass root level,” he added.
Ahead of the Assembly polls, the TMC had put up several hoardings along the highways across the state appealing people to vote for it.
“We have made mistakes, but the best part of TMC is that we learn from our mistakes. We have this much of humility to admit it,” the Rajya Sabha member said.
Referring to the move of eight Congress MLAs joining the ruling BJP, O’Brien said that during the poll campaign, the TMC had said that “a vote for Goa TMC is a vote for Goa TMC, a vote for Congress is vote for Goa BJP, vote for Goa BJP is a vote for Goa Congress.” He said that the party had appealed to people to vote for the TMC saying the party was going to be here to serve the people of the state. PTI RPS NP NP
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