Wilfred de Souza, Indian politician, died at 88

  Dead Famous

Wilfred de Souza, born on April 23, 1927 and died September 4, 2015 after a brief illness at a city hospital on Friday morning.

He was a surgeon and politician from Goa, India. Souza served as Goa’s chief minister on three occasions when he was a member of the Indian National Congress and the Goa Rajiv Congress, during his third tenure.

In July 1998 Dr de Souza formed the Goa Rajiv Congress as a splinter group of the INC.

He was sworn in as Chief Minister for the third time on 30 July 1998 and remained in the post until 26 November 1998.

In 1999, Dr de Souza joined the Nationalist Congress party and was its Goa president from 1999 to June 2009.

During this period he was Deputy Chief Minister in a coalition government with the INC from February 2005 to June 2007.

Souza failed to retain his seat in the 2007 assembly election. After he left the party, Gurunath Kulkarni, national general secretary of the Nationalist Congress party accused him of impeding the party’s growth in Goa.

In 2007, he was appointed the Deputy Chairperson of the State Planning Board. He attended “The Navhind Times Ex-NCC Achiever Cadet Awards” ceremony organised by the Ex-NCC Cadets Association and presented

awards and certificates to various winners. He also related his experience when he was a member of University Cadet Corps (now NCC) while complementing the award winners.

For the 2012 assembly election he was a member of the All India Trinamool Congress as head of the Goa branch of the party. During the election, he criticised the INC for corruption.

Souza died on September 4, 2015 after a brief illness at age 88.