TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: Even as three senior Congressmen including local Congress President Subash Shirodkar and firebrand Congress Legislature Party spokesman Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco are in Delhi to meet the Goa desk in-charge Digvijay Singh, the Congress High command is finding it difficult to find a strong candidate to head the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee.
However, one thing is clear, with the recent elevation of former chief minister Luizinho Faleiro as an AICC general secretary and Girish Chodankar as secretary attached to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, it is unlikely that much can happen in the State, without Faleiro’s say and blessings ~ covert or overt. Singh is likely to visit the state early next week.
Shirodkar has been living on borrowed time since the elections in which the party was routed after being inundated by allegations of corruption, nepotism, for giving tickets to political families, and illegal mining issue.
At present veteran Congressman and long time chief minister Pratapsing Rane is Leader of the Opposition, while Shirodkar helped by South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha runs the party with the help of Lourenco and Tamhankar who are spokespersons.
However, though Pratapsing Rane’s throne may be under siege with Mauvin Godinho pushing hard for CLP leadership even as the party is looking at him as a likely candidate for the GPCC chief seat.
Vishwajit Rane may have been mentioned for the GPCC post in case for some reason Pratapsing Rane is incapacitated ~ given his increasing age.
But Vishwajit has been one of the main targets of the shrill campaign waged by the BJP before the elections on alleged corruption in areas like recruitment and in the Health department with the government promising after the elections that it is likely to refer some cases to the Lokayukta, severely denting his chances given that the Congress has a major image problem not only in the country but also the state and elections are just around the corner.
Vishwajit has also reportedly told media that he is not interested even if he were offered the chair.
With Faleiro being the Catholic face of the AICC, the GPCC could go to someone from the Catholic minority community with Reginaldo being one option for the GPCC chief post. Veteran Luis Alex Cardozo may be another. The Congress’ options are limited given that the Congress MLAs, in the party’s long stint in power ensured that second rung leaders were systematically ground into the mud, unless they were sycophants of some MLA or family.
