SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Two more Congress office-bearers on Friday said that the party is directionless and that senior leaders are being sidelined. The duo also opined that the new entrants be asked to work for the party for a minimum of five years before they seek tickets to contest elections.
Speaking to media persons, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) general secretary Vijay Pai said he has been with the party for 28 years and complained that senior leaders have been sidelined while, others have been given plum positions in the organisation.
Pai said that the party is directionless and that no GPCC meeting has been held for the last 10 months. “I am also in-charge of party protocol and I am not informed nor get any information of the visit of the party’s national leaders in Goa. Senior leaders are also not consulted nor taken into confidence on important matters,” he said.
Goltim-Navelim acting sarpanch and GPCC secretary Mario Pinto said, “We are not holding a brief for anybody. But it pains us because the good prospects of the Congress in the coming elections are now sliding down. Why have senior leaders Pratapsing Rane, Luizinho Faleiro and Ravi Naik been sidelined?”
They said that the party should have enrolled prominent people at least one-and-half-years to two years back so that they would have worked for the organisation before seeking tickets. All those who have joined the Congress ahead of the elections should not be considered for party ticket to contest the polls and they be asked to work for the organisation for five years.
They also parried a question when asked whether some of the party leaders are trying to embrace Trinamool Congress (TMC). “We are loyal Congressman and that question does not arise. We will remain with the party,” they claimed.
Pinto alleged that non-Congressmen have been appointed on various committees ahead of the Assembly polls.
According to Pinto, the reason for members switching loyalties is that those who were inducted into the Congress were not indoctrinated properly with the values of the party.
