ARE THESE THE NEW FACES OF THE CONGRESS?

Team Herald

PANJIM: Even as Congress claims it will promote new and young faces for the 2017 Assembly elections, the reality appears to be different. The Congress old guard was back deliberating with the party brass and State Congress president leader Luizinho Faleiro endorsed their presence before AICC general secretary and Goa desk in charge Digvijay Singh. 

The meeting on Thursday, chaired by Singh in the Congress head office in Panjim, saw the presence of long time party leaders including former MP Francisco Sardinha, former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane, former ministers Ravi Naik, Manohar ‘Babu’ Asgaonkar and former Law Commissioner Ramakant Khalap and members like Jitendra Deshprabhu. 

The presence of the oldies came as a shocker to the young Congress leaders present at the meeting, who after Singh’s departure from Goa, expressed their displeasure over this. The members raised the question before Faleiro, who assured them that “their (oldies) presence does not mean the party will offer them tickets”.

Faleiro claimed that the senior leader’s contribution and guidance is important as the party plans to go alone in contesting all 40 seats. But not many are believing him.  A young block worker said “ We were literally asked to clear the way when the timers walked in and surrounded the AICC general Secretary Digvijay Singh. Nothing has changed. If the party wants fresh faces, start getting to know us first.”

Rane, Congress workers feel has underperformed as an opposition leader. Besides being Chief Minister for several terms Rane’s contribution to the party has been nil. Facing allegations in the SEZ scam, Rane was the one who cleared the entry of offshore casinos in the State. 

Khalap, despite being a Union minister has contributed little to state politics apart from his internal conflict.

Former MP Sardinha was recently at loggerheads with the party over being denied a Lok Sabha ticket and had fielded his son against the Congress. He will be hard pressed to explain any serious contribution to Goa in the last decade, including a leading role in a single agitation or issue

Asgaonkar, known for his political switch over, had jumped from the BJP to Congress for power. His claim to fame was the Gandhi market scam.

Jitendra Deshprabhu was elected as MLA only once and was loaned to NCP to fight the parliamentary polls by the Congress. 

While GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro has defended their presence by saying they will only be guiding lights, all of them nurse very strong ambitions to contest. Far from being “guides” they  are pretty strong aspirants who will contest with party green horns to get tickets.