PANJIM: After facing a humiliating defeat in the 2012 Assembly elections as a result of ‘family raj’, wherein nearly 33 percent of tickets were given to the kin of then sitting MLAs, the Congress has now categorically stated that the family raj concept was ‘bad history’ and it would not like to promote it in the near future.
Gearing up for the 2017 polls, the AICC has recently constituted a 17-member Goa Pradesh Congress Election Committee headed by party president Luizinho Faleiro to decide on the party’s election strategy and shortlist candidates. The committee has former home minister Ravi Naik as its member, who was on the party radar for alleged having an understanding with the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, which he had contested.
Speaking to Herald, Faleiro confirmed the formation of the committee and said he has already informed AICC and that the names of candidates for all 40 seats would be declared well in advance, giving them enough time to reach out to the people and cope with the political situation. “We intend to introduce 50 percent new faces this election. It is a popular aspiration amongst the people of Goa,” he said.
“At the same time, we would not like to repeat the mistakes. Family Raj was bad history for Congress and we would not like to promote it anymore,” the former Chief Minister said, refusing to speak further on the issue. Currently, the only family in the Congress party is the Ranes – father Pratapsingh and son Vishwajit.
The Congress had then blames family raj for the party’s defeat in 2012, when it had been reduced to single digits in the 40-member Assembly. Congress had promoted four families in the last elections – Rane, Monserrate (Atanasio and Jennifer), Alemao (Churchill, Valanka, Joaquim and Yuri in the NCP) and Naik (Ravi and Roy). While Rane and Monserrate managed to win, the Alemao and Naik families faced defeats.
Faleiro also said that as per the Congress constitution, the block committees shortlist the names of deserving candidates, which are scrutinized by the district committees and then the State election committee, before sending it to AICC for clearance.
The committee members include Ramakant Khalap, Digambar Kamat and Pandurang Madkaikar.
