In the wide expanse of a debris-ridden battlefield that the canvas of the Zilla Parishad battle has become for the Congress, there is not even a glow in the embers for the grand old party. It’s a field of self-destruction actually.
Speculation is rife that the GPCC president has decided to be accountable and resigned. Congressmen who spoke to Herald welcomed this but interestingly hoped that the resignation was serious. This was after South Goa MP and former Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha, addressing a press conference blaming the party leadership in Goa (read Girish Chodankar) for the Congress’ debacle in the ZP elections saying, “many senior leaders were not taken into confidence”.
If Chodankar had indeed lived up to his claims that the Congress flag would fly high in North and South Goa after the ZP elections, Congress may have pitched him as the next Chief Minister of Goa. But when the Congress was reduced to four seats, when the party did nothing and gave a walkover to the BJP in Sancoale where the Congress candidate left the battlefield and vanished, when the Congress failed to capitalise on the people’s angst against the coal tsunami and double-tracking, losing seats in agitation battlegrounds, when its candidate in Benaulim who crossed over from AAP lost to a 24-year-old AAP candidate, the leadership has to be held accountable.
Let us take this story back to when the ZP polls were supposed to be held, way back in March. Nine months have elapsed. This political pregnancy, after running its course has delivered a healthy baby for the BJP. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has a right to be politically paternal about this win and claiming it to be a mandate for his leadership as well as his subservience in the guise of support for making Goa a ground for coal transportation through the environment destroying the double-tracking project. He is able to do this due to the abject surrender of the Congress to the BJP to the extent of it almost facilitating the BJP victory with its inaction and refusal to put its party in order. And as a political party, if you do nothing to be politically relevant you are complicit in the rise of your principle opposition. The current Congress leadership in Goa is totally complicit in helping the BJP use an inconsequential and irrelevant election result, as a barometre of its political standing.
In reality, the ZP elections serve no great purpose in the lives of rural Goans. A tiny State like Goa has no need for this third tier of rural administration, especially when there is no clear role path which is followed by the ZPs. However, they help in claiming political bragging rights.
Sawant is claiming the ZP win as a mandate for coal transportation. A mandate for double-tracking. A mandate for the state of the economy or employment. It is none of that. In reality, it appears to be a mandate for match-fixing. What else can it be, if you see the manner in which the Congress surrendered to the BJP?
There was an outpouring of anger and resentment in Guirdolim (Chandor) and Davorlim against double tracking. It was people’s anger. And yet, the Congress, which claimed that it was the torchbearer of people’s resentment and would deliver justice lost to the BJP in the Guridolim ZP seat. The Congress might well claim that it got a lead in Guirdolim, Paroda and Chandor segments of the constituency but then is that enough? Doesn’t the grand old party have the strength to carry even a ZP seat which includes villages where the anti-coal agitation is at its peak, an agitation that the Congress claims is pan Goa and that it is the political custodian of that agitation? The BJP won the seat on the strength of votes it got from segments in the Quepem constituency, the stronghold of its former MLA and now BJP’s Deputy Chief Minister Babu Kavlekar.
What does this signify? That after ‘supplying’ 10 MLAs to the BJP, the Congress is in no position to or doesn’t have the will to challenge the free run of these turncoat MLAs.
It also means that people have no trust in the Congress and the choices it makes, especially going back to the tested and failed old guard, like the Joaquim Alemaos of this world. People do not want to touch the Congress.
In Raia, veteran Congressman Joseph Vaz lost to an Independent candidate. Look at Benaulim. Royla Fernandes was the only AAP candidate in the last Assembly elections who managed to save her deposit. And then she joined the Congress. As Congress’ ZP candidate, she lost to the 24-year-old AAP foot soldier Hansel Fernandes.
Turn to Siolim. The GFP had allowed MLA Vinod Palyekar to back whoever he wanted for this contest. Palyekar decided to back the Congress. The Congress lost there. Whereas in Colvale, the wife of GFP’s working president Kiran Khandolkar won by an impressive 2080 votes. So what is the message sent?
Look at what Congress MLAs are saying, “The Congress has not endeared itself to people and their causes under his leadership. This was bound to happen. They (GPCC leadership) are playing games and trying to undermine their own MLAs by weakening their chances in these elections.”
When Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Congress MLA from Curtorim was asked for his take on the Congress rout and the leadership of Chodankar, he said, “No comment is the best comment.”
Chodankar should be congratulated for admitting that his party has been reduced to ashes. But his hope of resurrection will also die a natural death if he himself does not get out of the way, back out totally and allow the Congress to resurrect.
