Goa BJP MLA Alina Saldanha resigns

Panaji: Former Forest Minister and sitting BJP MLA Alina Saldanha on Thursday resigned as legislator accusing the leadership in the state of forgetting 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. Commenting on speculation about a likely entry into the Aam Aadmi Party, Saldanha said that she has not taken any decision on her immediate political future yet.