Team Herald
PANJIM: Within hours of speaking to the media and presenting a united face of the party, All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary Anjali Nimbalkar cut short her visit to Goa and left on Wednesday night over alleged differences with AICC Goa desk in-charge Manikarao Thakare. Sources said that the two did not see eye-to-eye over the alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
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in the State.
The sudden departure of Nimbalkar is enough indication that all is not well within the Congress Goa unit, despite talk about strengthening the party at the grassroots.
According to insiders, the differences between the two leaders came to the fore right after the extended executive committee meeting of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) when Thakare questioned Nimbalkar on her stand that alliances with like-minded parties, which essentially means AAP, would be decided on only in the run-up to the next Assembly polls in 2027.
This would leave the united Opposition front of Congress and AAP that came together for the Lok Sabha polls and the Benaulim ZP elections this year in the wilderness for three years. During her visit to the Benaulim constituency last month, Nimbalkar had spoken on this and had said that she had been deputed to strengthen the party organisation in Goa.
Currently, AAP’s Venzy Viegas is MLA from Benaulim, which was once a Congress stronghold. However, the grand old party last won the seat in 1999.
Nimbalkar’s statement has caused discord between the Congress and the AAP, as both the parties are now at loggerheads.
Nimbalkar was on a three-day Goa visit from December 11 to 13 and was supposed to attend both the district and block committee meetings. Her sudden leaving the State to Belagavi on Wednesday night left party workers surprised.
