PANJIM: The ousted Girish Chodankar removed as GPCC president after leading the Congress to defeat from the jaws of victory repeatedly, is again at work making frantic efforts to make his favourite Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar the new Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader even as MLAs are just waiting to cross over to the BJP at the opportune moment.

It is learnt that Chodankar is camping in Delhi ahead of AICC in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao’s visit to Goa next week to choose the new CLP leader after the party removed Calangute MLA Michael Lobo as its CLP leader, on July 10, and also filed a disqualification petition before the Speaker against Lobo and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, claiming that the duo had acted against the party.

The High Command is miffed at Amonkar as he was also suspected of playing a dubious role during the last Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections when the Congress failed to field its candidate in the Sancoale ZP constituency in Mormugao taluka. Despite this, Team Girish shielded Amonkar.

Chodankar of late, in an attempt to keep himself relevant, has been addressing solo press conferences, not endorsed by the party, even holding one outside the party office.

The Congress also faces open charges of “deals” fixed for the distribution of Assembly tickets. Even the digital membership drive had failed despite roping in an expert from Delhi to conduct the digital membership drive.

It is learnt that Amonkar has threatened to quit the party if he is not appointed as CLP leader even though the majority of party MLAs have not backed him to be the CLP leader.

Aware of his diminishing clout, the former Congress president is now trying to use his sources in Delhi to mount pressure on the High Command.