making it all the more pressing and important for Congress to begin turning a new leaf in the State as another Assembly election creeps up. And the only way it can do that is by jettisoning the tried and tested politicos that have used the party for selfish reasons and face the electorate with a new crop of politicians who have nothing to hide and whose cupboards have no skeletons that can pop out and embarrass the party.
Goa is now well into election year. With the elections now just months away – there even being the possibility of the polls being held this year end – time is not on the side of the State’s main opposition party. It requires a revamp, a task almost akin to the cleaning of the Augean Stables. If in Greek mythology Hercules cleaned the Augean Stables in one day by changing the course of two rivers and allowing the waters to flush out the filth of three decades, Congress has to do its cleaning by changing its course and flush out the deadwood in the party so that those who will come in can start afresh.
That’s a task that the party will not find easy. There will be tough decisions to be taken, decisions that many who have held important positions in the party will find unacceptable and resist, but at the cost of displeasing some of the old Congress hands, the party will have to make the changes. The first is looking at fresh faces. Across the world people are looking at and electing young leaders. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is 44 years old, David Cameroon was 43 when he first became Prime Minister of England, Barrack Obama was 47 when he was elected President of the United States. Why then should the winds of change that bring in young leaders not blow through Goa?
After the defeat it suffered in 2012, the Congress is in the best position to usher in some change in the way it chooses and fields its candidates for the next election. There is a field of 40 and currently the party has just seven serving MLAs, most of whom have not shown any exceptional ability in the legislature. The party is actually in a position to choose over 80 per cent of its candidates from among those workers who have never faced an Assembly election. It can take that percentage even higher if it has the gumption to tell its serving MLAs that their performance does not merit them a ticket. But for that the party has to go to the polls alone, without any alliances that would curtail its freedom to select candidates of its choice.
The Congress’ only chance of having an edge in this election is new faces. That is the only trump card that the party has and is in a position to play. The State party president, Luizinho Faleiro, has apologised for the mistakes its leaders have made. But that won’t be enough to convince the people to vote for it. He has to match his actions to his words. Faleiro has announced that he is not interested in contesting the next election. He has to now convince other stalwarts of the party that they have to stand aside and allow the young blood in the ranks to step forward and take their place. It is only a Congress with new faces across constituencies that can contest on its own, with any hope of winning the next election.
