The appointment of Girish Chodankar as the new Congress President puts to the end the uncertainty, unease and an abject slowness the party’s decision making and leadership capabilities. He also joins the post, bereft of any baggage or skeletons and gives himself a chance to embark on this new journey as the captain of the single largest party in Goa, on a clean slate. And above all, he is the first president of Goa congress in close to a decade, who has more of his political career ahead of him than behind him.
Shantaram Naik was, at best, a stop gap arrangement after the unfortunate circumstances which led to Mr Luzinho Faleiro deciding to step down as GPCC president. Mr Faleiro has only recently spoken out on how he had after winning the largest number of seats in the 2017 assembly elections had got a letter prepared to stake claim.
He revealed that the it was the Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh who asked Luizinho not to give the letter and reportedly said that the Governor would have to invite the single largest party to form the government. These frustrations obviously played a part in Faleiro’s decision to step down.
Since then the party has been afflicted with inertia and lack of purpose. In choosing Chodankar over former Chief Ministers and other veterans, the AICC has indicated that it wants a fresh start and wants to distance itself from past veterans who many not be able to grapple with the ground reality and political syllabus of 2018.
One of the first tests that the new GPCC president faced was at the Lohia maidan rally on Friday where he led his party in support of the people’s demands to scrap PDAs and ODPs and work on a fresh Regional Plan. The Congressmen and women who went there were expecting this to be an isolated people’s uprising against the Parrikar led coalition government, were in for a surprise as a power point presentation was beamed on the screen backdrop where the details of land conversion in village after village was presented, Very soon, many senior leders of their party were “named’ as architects of conversion. Clearly the previous Congress government was as much in the ambit of attack, as the present BJP led one. The new GPCC president had to take his first decision as president, not to react immediately except saying that he would get each of the allegations against Congress leaders examined with explanations called for.
His biggest challenge as well as the top most on his to do list will and should be, is to take a break from the past. He has to begin work with a new set of young turks from the block upwards and rebuild the organisation, which he had, during Luizinho Faleiro’s time, initiated. In fact the pre- poll padyatra undertaken by Mr Faleiro as GPCC chief was the brainchild of Chodankar. A new Congress stare executive, should consist of those who can devote 20 years or more to the party, without thinking of power and position. It is only then that the Congress may be in a position of furthering its cause of coming to power on its own and not depend on crutches, which is sadly what the outgoing GPCC president Shantaram Naik seemed to be recommending.
