When will the Congress get to work? Or when will the desk in-charge of Goa of the AICC let the Goa Congress get to work? Candidates need to move out, campaign, make up for amounts of lost time due to the shenanigans of some “senior leaders” and AICC’s Digvijay Singh himself. The nominations have been filed, the scrutiny done and the last date for withdrawals is upon us. But the drama still doesn’t end. This is beginning to look like a very cheap suspense thriller, playing in an empty movie hall.
And the entire drama revolves around just one seat, Fatorda, when it shouldn’t be. The run-up to this campaign has been about two clear choices. It’s a choice between winning at all costs and winning the trust of people for building the party honesty, with vision and with a plan to restore Goa. The inability to account for and learn lessons from last time’s defeat and to build grassroots leadership left the Congress in a shambles. A restoration project is on. As a part of this, the AICC, inspite of contrary views of two leaders of the Congress – Digambar Kamat and Pratapsingh Rane – went by the general consensus of the Central Election Committee and the grassroot observers who travelled in Goa, that the Congress’ best chance lies in cleaning the slate and contesting on its own with new faces. This is where AICC desk in-charge Digvijay Singh comes in. And he along with the two Goa leaders seemed to go against the spirit and decision of the GPCC president and the organisation to inspire and align with the AICC. While that battle was won with the a another senior member of AICC holding strong and echoing the views of the “high command”, a section of the high command did behave like the sly command.
Once all the nominations were filed, Fatorda still stood out like a sore problem. The ‘sly’ command, instructed the GPCC president to issue a letter withdrawing the party support to its candidate Joseph Silva. The letter reached late though and after more unnecessary overnight suspense, his candidature was cleared. The Goa Forward has screamed betrayal and it is Digvijay Singh who has to respond to this. Because the wise men in Delhi, and this we know from authority, had decided that the Fatorda seat adjustment was subjected to Vijai Sadesai contesting as an Independent. Clearly this wasn’t the picture conveyed to Sardesai by Digvijay Singh and he needs to be accountable for this.
Congressmen in Goa, watched with shock as the AICC desk in-charge made a last ditch attempt to get the Congress Fatorda candidate to withdraw, after the real high command gave the go ahead for issuing the party membership letter and sealing Josph Silva’s nomination.
Digvijay Singh therefore found himself alone in his decision making. But he is holding on, refusing to call out formally, that the Congress candidate in Fatorda will stay, just in case another twist is possible.
This hasn’t been about Fatorda. This has been about the murky battle between the high command and the sly command, between sticking to a decision made for the party, as opposed to decisions made outside of the party.
