PANJIM: Only one person knows when the Goa Congress with 11 MLAs will find a leader of their party in the House. As the first budget session is over, some are joking “Do they need one”, or better still “Do they really have a leader?”
The 11 MLAs came to no consensus on who the leader of the party in the House should be. Congress neither has party president who has resigned yet again, nor does it have a CLP leader.
And when the media asked two very senior Congressmen about the CLP leadership issue, they were totally in the dark and appeared miffed at the press for grilling them.
Congress working president and Nuvem MLA Aleixo Sequeira and Mormugao MLA and vice president Sankalp Amonkar had an uncomfortable and tense exchange with media persons when they were asked about the delay in electing the CLP leader.
Sequeira said, “Some papers reported that there was heated discussion and that we could not select the CLP leader. There was no discussion whatsoever. On the contrary, we passed a resolution that the CLP leader is decided by Delhi (High Command). That is the faith we reposed in AICC President Sonia Gandhi to select the CLP leader. Since there were no party observers here we have sent it to Delhi to decide.”
Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar said that all 11 party MLAs passed a resolution authorising AICC president Sonia Gandhi to choose the CLP leader. “The resolution was proposed by me. We all are united and whoever is elected we will work unitedly as the opposition,” he said adding that their CLP leader will be announced by Wednesday.
Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat too said that a decision is expected at any moment. It is going to be 21 days since the election results were declared. So irrespective of when the chosen one is revealed, it will not be a moment too soon.
He said that since the AICC observers could not arrive in Goa, they decided to authorise the Congress President to choose the CLP leader.
During the two-day Assembly session, Kamat being the senior leader donned the mantle of the Leader of the Opposition.
