Ahead of her maiden, 2-day visit to poll-bound Goa, which she will embark on next week, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged people of the state to join forces against the “divisive” agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “As I prepare for my maiden visit to Goa on the 28th, I call upon all individuals, organisations and political parties to defeat the BJP and their divisive agenda. The people have suffered enough over the last 10 years,” Banerjee tweeted.

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“Together, we will usher a new dawn in Goa by forming a new government that will truly be a government of the people and committed to realising their aspirations!” the West Bengal chief minister added, using the hashtag “GoenchiNaviSakal,” which, when translated from the coastal state’s Konkani language to English, means “Goa’s new dawn.”

The TMC’s foray into the state comes on the back of its victory in the West Bengal assembly elections earlier this year, which saw Banerjee win a third consecutive term. Since then, the party has tried to expand itself nationally, particularly in the neighbouring Tripura, as well as Goa. The two states have a BJP government; the Trinamool and the BJP engaged in a bitter electoral faceoff in Bengal, with the former coming out on top.

To consolidate itself in Goa, the Banerjee-headed party, last month, inducted former chief minister and 7-time MLA Luizinho Faleiro from the Congress, the main opposition party in the state. On Friday, it appointed Faleiro as a national vice president.

Assembly elections in Goa, for all 40 assembly constituencies, are expected to take place early next year. Besides the TMC, another new entrant here is the Arvind Kejriwal-headed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has already announced that it will contest the 2022 polls.