Congress stalwarts cold shoulder anti-govt rally

Office bearers unhappy; Shirodkar downplays absence of main leaders 
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Congress MLAs and defeated party candidates alike were conspicuous by their absence as district party workers took out a rally on Wednesday morning in front of the South Goa Collectorate to protest against the Parrikar regime for its failure on the law and order front and other issues.
Caught on the wrong foot over the absence of party stalwarts for the protest rally, GPCC Chief Subhash Shirodkar sought to downplay the absence of sitting MLAs and former MLAs, saying the rally has been organised at the level of block presidents and officers.
Herald inquiries, however, revealed that district Congress leaders had intimated all the four party MLAs in South Goa, including Digambar Kamat, Babu Kavlekar, Reginaldo Lourenco and Mauvin Godinho about Wednesday’s rally. Sources said two of these MLAs point blank declined to attend the rally, while one amongst them is even believed to have told the district office bearers that he is content at playing his role as a “party soldier” than in leading the workers at the rally.
That’s not all. None of the defeated candidates took time off from their schedules to participate in the rally. The Alemao brothers were conspicuous by their absence and so were former Power Minister Aleixo Sequeira and Water Resources Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues. District Congress office bearers maintained that the defeated candidates were all intimated of the protest rally in advance, but in vain.
The turnout for the protest rally was also not too impressive since the party was expecting workers from all the 20 Assembly constituencies from the district. The GPCC chief is believed to have promised to mobilise sizeable workers from Ponda taluka, but only a handful of workers turned out from the taluka. District office bearers in private accused some party leaders for making it for the rally without bringing their workers along with them.
This has assumed significance and come against the backdrop of the fact that though the rally was organised not just to expose the Parrikar regime’s misdeeds, but was aimed at galvanising the workers from the district ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.