TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: The dust kicked up by the April 12 Lok Sabha poll is slowly and steadily settling down in the state, but the Congress leadership has a task cut out to restore the party’s lost glory and strengthen itself from the grassroots to brace up to face the challenges ahead, including the next assembly poll scheduled three years from now.
Exposed hollow in the just concluded Lok Sabha poll, where the party found it hard to put in place manpower to man the polling booths, leave alone bring out workers, even senior party leaders opine that the party has no short cuts to restore its pre-eminent position in state politics, but strengthen the party from the booth level.
The Congress organisation was lacking in certain constituencies such as Navelim, Benaulim, Cuncolim, Dabolim and segments such as Sanguem, Madkai or Sanvordem. Party candidate Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco’s campaign managers had to virtually depend on non-Congress leaders to run the show in the absence of any organisation worth its name in many assembly segmentS down South. That’s not all. The Congress had to face double trouble in certain constituencies such as Navelim and Benaulim following Churchill Alemao’s exit to join the Trinamool Congress. Party insiders say the Navelim Congress had faced a depletion in party ranks following an exodus of workers in the run up to the 2012 assembly poll to independent legislator Avertano Furtado. And, Churchill’s exit hit the last nail in the Congress coffin in Navelim, leaving hardly any workers left behind to work for the Congress candidate. Secondly, a good number of workers who had
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switched sides in the 2012 assembly poll has failed to return home despite Churchill moving out of the Congress fold.
The situation in Benaulim is no better either. Churchill’s exit resulted in an exodus of the party workers, including the block president David Fernandes, leaving the party organisation crippled.
Says AICC General Secretary Luizinho Faleiro: “It is quite disturbing that the Congress organisation has come under strain. We have seen in the Lok Sabha poll how the party found it hard to even mobilise workers to support the party candidate. We have to put in place a system wherein the organisation is strengthened to meet the challenges. There’s no better option than to start organising the party right from the booth level.”
Faleiro says that though he is away in Delhi and the north-east, he is ready and willing to help and guide the party to come out the state of affairs. “Only a strong organisation can help the party to grow and meet the aspirations of the people”, he said, while recalling that he has embarked on a mission in the north-east to strengthen the party.
Sources in the Congress say the party is aware of the problem staring at the party organisation, only worsened by rebellion from party leaders like Churchill Alemao, Francisco Sardinha and Mauvin Godinho.
Top party leaders do not rule out the possibility of a restructuring and reconstitution of the party block and the district committees upon green signal from the party central leadership.
A senior party leader told Herald that the party has not learnt a lesson or two from the exit of Vijai Sardesai from the Congress on the eve of the 2012 assembly poll. “When Vijai had quit the party after being denied a ticket, he had taken with him the entire block and members of the frontal organisation with him. The party leadership has done little to strengthen the organisation in Fatorda since the last two years . On the contrary, the party has rewarded Vijai by entrusting him with Reginaldo’s election campaign”, he pointed out
Similarly, he said the party has inducted Advocate John Monteiro into the Congress in the run up to the Lok Sabha campaign, knowing well that Monteiro was responsible for the defeat of the party candidate, Joaquim Alemao. “Why can’t the party leadership organise the party from the grassroots. Relying on people responsible for damaging the party’s interests sends a wrong message to the rank and file”, remarked the Congress leader.
