Team Herald
PANJIM: Former Union Minister and AICC election observer P Chidambaram is likely to face party workers’ wrath in some of the Constituencies following reports of over pre-poll alliance talks between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Chidambaram is arriving in Goa on a three-day from Friday and will visit Calangute, Dabolim and Ponda Block committees where workers are agitated over the reports of alliance talks and others issues like admission of Minister Michael Lobo and sidelining of Congress MLA Ravi Naik.
All three constituencies where Chidambaram’s visit is scheduled have different issues.
In Calangute, the party workers are vehemently opposing the any move to admit Ports Minister Michael Lobo in the Congress party even as Congress president Girish Chodankar on Thursday said that he has no information or received any proposal from the Minister that he wants to join the Congress party.
“I have no information nor received any application from the Minister willing to join Congress party. I appeal to party workers not to believe in rumours,” he said.
However, Congress workers from Calangute are in mood to believe Chodankar and have decided to question the AICC leader and seek clarification from him on Friday.
Former Calangute MLA Agnelo Fernandes and former Calangute sarpanch Joseph Sequeira have threatened to quit the party if the Minister Lobo is admitted in the Congress.
In Dabolim Constituency, the party workers are also upset over the pre-poll alliance talks with the NCP. They fear that the seat may be allotted to the NCP if both the parties tie-up for the ensuing elections. The workers have claimed that the Congress had already started in campaign in the constituency while the NCP is far from battle ready.
Former Minister and NCP State president Jose Philip D’Souza has already announced his decision to contest from Dabolim constituency.
In Ponda, loyalists of MLA Ravi Naik are furious over the party’s attempts to sideline the veteran leader. It is learnt that Naik was not invited during the visit of AICC leader Rahul Gandhi in Goa a fortnight ago and it was due to politics of one-upmanship between Naik and Chodankar and both are known detractors of each other. Chidambaram, Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao and other party leaders will address Ponda Block Congress members at the Menino Executive hall, Ponda at 11 am on Sunday.