As councilman, he was investigated by an inquiry commission of the same council for suspects of overpriced contracting of catering services for Rio's public schools during his earlier spell as secretary, such charges being eventually dismissed.

In 2000, Da Costa spent several weeks in New York City working inside a major election operation in the United States to get acquainted with tactics and technology used in the mayoral campaign of Michael R. Bloomberg.

[3] Da Costa later announced that he had earlier implemented many of the Bloomberg's management tactics while he was Secretary for Administration in the Maia mayoralty.

In 2006, Da Costa was elected as a Brazilian Federal Deputy (Congressman) and on June 30, 2010, was chosen as the running mate to presidential candidate José Serra.

[6][7] After the results of the 2010 election, which by the popular vote elected Dilma Rousseff as Brazil's first female president, Indio da Costa parted from his former political party "DEM" to become one of the founders of the PSD "Social Democrats Party" along with the then Mayor of São Paulo, Gilberto Kassab.