PANJIM: A little over three weeks after he requested to be “relieved” of his post of GPCC President of Goa, Luzinho Faleiro sent a fresh letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi reiterating his “request” and allow him to step down.

This letter, however, assumes immense political significance, as Mr Faleiro has underlined the reason for insisting on him being relieved as GPCC president. He said that as some of the Congress MLAs feel that his continuation “creates a hindrance to the formation of the government”, he would like to step down as President.

However, the full text of this paragraph underlines his hurt. In a tone laced with sarcasm he took on senior Congress leaders who “have misjudged and misguided” and wrote, “A couple of senior leaders within the party publicly stated that the Congress party would not get more than 2 seats in the 2017 Assembly elections. On the contrary the Congress party emerged as the single largest party with 17 seats. Now, these same leaders are claiming that they can form the government in the present scenario. We hope we can accomplish this claim. However, as some of the MLAs feel that my continuation creates a hindrance to the formation of the government, I would request you to relieve me of my responsibilities.”

Recalling the events of the Assembly elections, the GPCP president wrote, “If you may recollect, I had predicted that we would get the required seats in the 2017 Assembly elections as opposed to the 6 seats we won in 2012. We would have actually got 21 seats HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THE MISJUDGMENT AND MISGUIDANCE OF SOME SENIOR CONGRESSMEN.”

It is clear that the senior leadership who he refers to include former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and the league of former Chief Ministers who wanted a shot at the top chair immediately after the results were declared on March 11. They also feel that unless Faleiro goes as GPCC president, the Congress cannot even attempt speaking to Goa Forward, irrespective of the realistic chances of this happening.

Faleiro said that he had not only rebuilt the Congress organisation from scratch but also every block, district, frontal organisation and other departments, helping gain the voters’ confidence.

This letter of Faleiro’s completely exposes the manner in which senior leaders of the party have been gunning for him and wanting him out of the way to attempt future politicking and attempts at government formation. And the onus is now on the league of former CMs (as well as the then AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh who has now been removed) to respond to the direct charge of Mr Faleiro that they see him as a hindrance to government formation.

When Herald contacted Mr Faleiro, after getting its hands on the copy of his letter to Sonia Gandhi, he said, “I confirm that today June 23, I have written another letter to the AICC President requesting her to consider my letter of June 5 requesting to be relieved as GPCC President and allow me to relinquish this position. This is not a new development. I have sent my first letter asking to be relieved and I have publicly said so at a press conference in the presence of Mr Chella Kumar, (the AICC secretary in charge of Goa). The contents of today’s letter are absolutely clear and self explanatory. There is no room for ambiguity.”