Digvijay gets flood of complaints, unable to hammer out consensus
TEAM HERALD
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
PANJIM: The Congress could revert to status quo on its top two posts within the state unit ~ at least for the immediate future ~ even as the high command promised to revamp the Pradesh Congress Committee, going by the deliberations on Wednesday.
AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh was unable to hammer out a consensus on the top posts even as he engaged in a ‘one on one’ with each Congressman at the International Centre at Dona Paula. The confabulations where Singh did a ‘walk the talk’ with Congress leaders and workers continued late into the night after the initial hiccups at Congress House where Singh was told that there was still a lot of resentment among the Congress workers about the way the Congress MLAs treated them. Given that this was the case even when the party was in power, this complaint did not come as news.
Putting the onus on State Congress top brass, workers told the Central leader that it was the top leaders who chose or recommended the allocation of nominations (tickets) and they were the cause of the party’s defeat in the state ~ especially as the strategy was formulated by them.
Another major grouse voiced by Congress workers Wednesday night and seconded by a very senior Congressman was that there was no respect for hierarchy in the party and that anybody ~ even those who had worked against the party in the recent elections ~ was taken and given plum posts.
Earlier, the two hour long meeting at GCCI hall, Panjim began with a politically correct Goa Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Subhash Shirodkar urging the high command to accept his resignation from the post, after enumerating the reasons for the decimation of the party at the 2012 elections.
Earlier, the MLAs including Atanasio Babush Monserrate and Pandurang Madkaikar ~ not present for the meeting at the GCCI ~ met him at Congress House, where Singh flanked by Shirodkar and Leader of Opposition Pratapsing Rane met Congressmen. However, this led to disquiet and some voiced their reservations about this. After objections were voiced, he asked the Congressmen to come to meet him at the International Centre.
Singh, who chaired the meeting, later told a press conference that the party would take a considered decision on the resignation but remained tight-lipped to a question on the possible revamping of the GPCC.
Asking partymen to maintain discipline and to portray simplicity, Singh said it is now important to open doors for new people to come in.
“We have to open our doors for the new people to come in. We have to reach out to a new section of the people and at the same time give voice to the people of Goa. The membership drive should be augmented,” Singh said.
“We have won in states such as Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and other such States. In the state where we lost our performance was still good in which the number of votes and seats increased except for Bihar and Goa…” he said.
Requesting Singh to relieve him of his responsibilities, GPCC chief said, “I had tendered my resignation and mentioned it to him (Singh) to intervene in the matter”.
“I have been spending sleepless nights thinking what made us to lose the government… It is my humble request, please relieve me of my responsibility, I will continue to support the party,” he told Singh during the meeting.
Citing illegal mining, medium of instruction (in primary schools), regional plan and corruption reasons for the defeat in 2012 polls, Shirodkar also accused the BJP of having projected these issues in a ‘wrong way’ before the people during the election campaign.
The State party leaders, meanwhile, urged each other to maintain unity, with MP Francisco Sardinha asking them to solve the internal differences within the four walls.
“It is a thing of the past. Leave it behind,” he said referring to Congress’ worst defeat in the 2012 assembly elections. “The internal differences should be sorted out within four walls. Let us not wash dirty linen in public. Let us stay together and show BJP that they came to power by mistake and by default. We have to defeat them in the (ensuing) Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
The meeting was attended by nearly 150-200 people, nearly all State Congress leaders barring MLAs Babush Monserrate and Pandurang Madkaikar.
Pratapsing Rane, former union minister Ramakant Khalap, South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha, MLAs Mauvin Godinho, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Vishwajeet Rane, Jennifer Monserrate and Chandrakant Kavlekar, Digambar Kamat; Congressmen Churchill Alemao, Ravi Naik and Babu Azgaonkar, Philip Neri Rodrigues, youth leaders Valanka Alemao and Pratima Coutinho were among other Congress leaders present.
