PANJIM: This seemed like a cruel repeat of 2017 when the Congress found itself knocking on the doors of forming a government but couldn’t (or wasn’t allowed to) elect a leader to go and stake claim and form a government. This time in 2022, it was in no position to form the government on its own or to swing a backroom operation to beat the mandate to form a government.
All it had to do was choose a leader of the legislature party who would become the Leader of the Opposition (LoP). In 19 days it failed to do so.
On the day the budget session started, all they did was meet to authorise their Interim National President Sonia Gandhi to choose a CLP leader.
The lackadaisical approach to such an important function of choosing the Opposition Leader was opposed by the Congress’ own leadership in Goa.
Vishal Pai Cacode, Congress’ Campaign Convenor tweeted, “Today, 66.69% of voters in Goa who voted against @BJP4Goa in Assembly elections were deprived of having their Leader of Opposition in the Goa Legislative Assembly by @INCGoa by not announcing its Legislature Party leader.”
It is probably for the first time in the history of the State Legislative Assembly, on Tuesday, the Opposition benches attended the session of the Assembly without nominating their leader.
Former Leader of the opposition Digambar Kamat, however, was seated on the chair of the Opposition Leader.
Kamat also escorted the Governor to the House for his address and also the newly-elected Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar to his chair, along with the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant. Interim Speaker Ganesh Gaonkar requested Kamat to do so, he being a senior leader in the Opposition.
Kamat told media persons that the CLP has authorised Congress president Sonia Gandhi to decide the leader. He said that the CLP leader could not be elected due to lack of time.
The fact is that his party couldn’t do this in 19 days when it made tall promises that time they would elect a leader and stake claim to form a government within two hours of election results.
Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, who is also lobbying for the post of Leader of the Opposition, said that the High Command will decide the leader.
Denying any tug of war among the Congress MLAs for the post of CLP leader, Lobo said, “We have passed a resolution authorising Congress president Sonia Gandhi to take a call on CLP leader. In BJP too, the call was taken by their national leaders (to elect the leader).”
It is learnt that the High Command had called both – Lobo and Kamat – to Delhi in a bid to elect the CLP leader by consensus. Lobo met AICC leaders last week while, Kamat air dashed to Delhi on Monday and returned the same night.
Many Congress functionaries have not liked the party’s decision not to elect the CLP leader.
