Alina Saldanha Resigns as BJP MLA, Joins AAP; Says Was Feeling ‘Suffocated’

Goa BJP MLA Alina Saldanha, who joined the Aam Aadmi Party after resigning from the Assembly, said she was feeling suffocated in the ruling party whose policies were “anti-people”. Saldanha had resigned from the Assembly and BJP on Thursday and joined AAP in the presence of its convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal later in the evening in the national capital. “I was feeling suffocated. Even the party (BJP) also felt I was an obstruction for their goals which are anti-people. If I am with the people, I can’t be with the BJP. I am in Delhi and I have seen the progress the Kejriwal government has brought here and so I joined the AAP, Saldanha said at an online press conference in the presence of the Delhi CM.

Saldanha, who had opposed the double tracking of South Western Railway’s line in Goa, said the BJP in the state was no longer that of late Manohar Parrikar. Her husband Matanhy Saldanha was part of the Parrikar government earlier and had died while being minister.