You can fool some people sometimes, or some people all the time but not people all the time. This has been one of the most long-standing cliches in life. But the GPCC president Girish Chodankar would really well to read it.
All of a sudden, former Benaulim MLA Mickky Pacheco has jumped out of hibernation, announcing that he would revive the Congress and has made some audacious claims, while not forgetting to sing the praise of Chodankar. What does this indicate? Is Pacheco batting for the Congress or Chodankar? And Chodankar seems to be making a habit of promising multiple tickets to multiple people in different constituencies, causing absolute chaos.
Pacheco addressed a press conference attacking a senior leader like Congress MP Francisco Sardinha. All Sardinha had done was echoed the popular sentiment within the party that Chodankar who has already resigned twice should go.
But Chodankar’s latest torchbearer would have none of it. Pacheco went to the extent of saying that he could contest from either Benaulim or Nuvem constituencies. That was followed by him saying he has been in “close touch” with the Congress High Command. “I am directly in touch with the Congress high command. I have given my 16-page independent report to the Congress leadership on how to rebuild the party in Goa ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections,” he said.
If a person not in the Congress, manages to reach the Congress high command and give a 16-page report bypassing GPCC or the AICC in charge then one should assume that there is actually no Congress in Goa.
Let us ask, who has authorized Pacheco to declare where he would content from? Secondly, did anyone reach out to a former MLA looking for his own revival, to give the High Command a road to revival report?
IS THERE ANYONE IN THE CONGRESS WHO KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON?
The Congress needs to choose their good candidates soon or it may cause total confusion which may lead to total disintegration of the party for elections.
After promising all of them tickets, will Girish be able to unite them later? He is preparing the ground for rebellion in each constituency. Some may defect at the last moment and create candidates for other parties.
In Benaulim, Caitu Silva, Mickky Pacheco and Royala Fernandes and others have been given feelers or promised tickets by the president. The same goes for Nuvem, Cortalim, Velim. Wherever he goes, a twice-resigned president is doing his own ticket distribution.
According to sources, tickets have been promised to people outside the party as well much to the resentment of Congress workers.
THE ONLY WAY TO STOP THIS IS TO CHANGE THE GPCC PRESIDENT WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY
This multiple ticket distribution virus will not end till there is a change of guard and Goa has a new GPCC president who plays by the rules, builds the party, selects candidates on merit, and follows the proper procedure for ticket distribution. Otherwise, the Congress in Goa can say bye not just to the next elections but the future of the party as well.
