NEW DELHI/PANJIM: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday held a lengthy meeting with senior party leaders of Goa invited to Delhi mainly to discuss the issue of change on leadership and preparations for the Assembly elections in the State due early next year. No decision was taken.
Gandhi, however, assured the Goa leaders that he would convey their views to his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi at the earliest to revamp the party organisation in the State by forming various committees for the ensuing elections.
Party sources said Gandhi met all the Sate leaders separately on the change of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president to appoint a leader, who commands respect and capacity to take all party leaders together and avenge the fraud done by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the 2017 Assembly elections to get 10 of the Congress MLAs defected.
When contacted, South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha said that he met party leader Rahul Gandhi and conveyed his feelings to him.
“I met Rahulji separately and told him everything. I told him the need to replace the current president (Girish Chodankar) and to appoint a new State president who can strengthen the organisation in the upcoming Assembly elections.”
Similar views were also expressed by party MLAs Luizinho Faleiro and Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco. During their one-to-one meeting with Gandhi, the duo is learnt to have told him that Chodankar’s continuance would affect the party prospects in the next elections.
A media statement by All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary incharge of Goa desk Dinesh Gundu Rao stated that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met senior leaders of Goa and told them to work unitedly and to promote young and new faces to win the Assembly elections and fulfill the popular wishes of Goans by defeating undemocratic, unconstitutional and communal forces in the State.
GPCC president Girish Chodankar, CLP leader Digambar Kamat, former Chief Minister and MLA Luizinho Faleiro, MP Francisco Sardinha, former Union Minister Adv Ramakant Khalap, Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco along with AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal besides Dinesh Rao were present for the meeting.
The meeting also discussed the political situation in the State and various strategies have also been discussed to ensure the victory of Congress in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Goa, Rao said.
Gandhi also told them that some of the defectors want to return to the Congress party fold and elicited their opinion. The sources said the State leaders were opposed to inducting any of the defectors or giving them the party ticket.
