For starters, it has to settle the leadership issue at the earlier. Just after the votes had been counted and Congress in second place with 11 seats, the State unit president Girish Chodankar requested that he be relieved from the post. In fact, he has asked this at other times too, taking responsibility of the losses in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and by-elections, but almost three years later he still remains at the helm, despite the desertion of 10 MLAs in July of 2019. A revamp of the organisation is now clearly on the cards, as the reconstituted Goa Pradesh Congress Committee does not appear to have worked any magic on the party.
Explaining the loss, the party has pointed to the split in votes, which undoubtedly did play a role, but just what confidence did the party demonstrate to the people in the run-up to the election and also during the campaign? Take just two instances that showed up the party’s lack of strategy and connect with its own people. After having announced the Congress ticket in Curtorim to its sitting MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, the MLA quit the party and joined the Trinamool Congress Party, only to later regret and quit the TMC and resign from that party too. In the meantime, another Congress member Moreno Souza quit the party after he was denied the ticket, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party quit the BJP when Lourenco walked out of the Congress and returned to the party. Souza was given the Congress ticket and Lourenco who contested as an Independent won the seat. In Poriem, after having announced Pratapsingh Rane as candidate, he decided not to contest and his selected person was given the ticket, only to lose very badly to the daughter-in-law of the senior Rane who was a BJP candidate.
Such mess-ups are not expected from a party with the experience of the Congress. Aren’t these two seats that would have been theirs and yet were lost? If the party undertakes some introspection on the reasons for the loss, it has to consider all these aspects and not just the split in votes. Of course, had the opposition space not been so crowded and parties managing to take quite a chunk from the vote share, the result for the Congress may have been different. Yet, the party was well aware of the other political entities that were entering the race and should have structured its strategy accordingly. Blaming the split in votes is the easy excuse. What it needs to do is identify where it went wrong and how it can be changed.
Now, back occupying the opposition benches for a third consecutive term, the party clearly requires a revamp of the leadership, with an individual with a proven record of administrative and leadership capability being given charge of the party in Goa. The party high command may have to dig deep to select somebody who fits this bill and who will also have the respect of the party stalwarts, as the person who occupies the post will have to be young, energetic and prepared to take on the other parties in the State of which there are now many. Till the time the organisation leadership remains unsettled, the party will not be able to make a strong comeback. It has to be a two-pronged leadership – in the organisation and in the assembly – where both work in tandem to achieve their targets.
