FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar other party leaders and MLAs Luizinho Faleiro and Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco reached Delhi on Wednesday evening to attend a crucial meeting convened by AICC leader Rahul Gandhi to resolve the State party president issue.
Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat and former Union Minister and coordination committee chairman Ramakant Khalap will leave for the national capital on Thursday morning while, the party’s two other MLAs Pratapsingh Rane and Ravi Naik are learnt to have expressed their in ability to attend the meeting.
South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha, who is currently in Delhi, AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal and AICC secretary Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao will also attend the meeting scheduled in Delhi at 4 pm on Thursday.
The meeting will discuss the GPCC leadership issue and ways to strengthen the organisation ahead of the Assembly elections due in February-March next year.
There is factionalism in the GPCC with one group demanding the removal of Chodankar as the party president while, the other faction wants Chodankar to continue. Last month, Rao, during a visit to Goa had met both factions and is learnt to have submitted his report to the high command.
Sardinha has been demanding the removal of Chodankar as president even as the latter had twice submitted his resignation, the last time being after the party suffered a defeat in the Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections in December last year.
Last week, Rahul Gandhi had stated that those who are afraid of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have no place in the Congress and only those who are fearless will be encouraged in the organisation. They are also reports that the Congress will have no truck with those who in their lust for power facilitated the formation of BJP governments.
