MARGAO: The Goa Forward Party on Monday questioned Girish Chodankar’s Congress Party leadership and accused him of trying to divide the Opposition in State instead of cobbling together a unity of the Opposition parties.
Briefing media persons, Goa Forward Party Spokesperson Prashant Naik wondered why Girish was so upset over the fact that his party President Vijai Sardessai demanded a CBI inquiry into the functioning of the PWD given the fact that roads constructed by the department get spoilt within months.
“Girish’s statement against Vijai indicates that he is in cahoots with the BJP and probably that is why the Congress lost 12 of its 17 MLAs under his leadership which saw the Congress that was having 17 MLAs remaining with only five,” he said.
He also pointed out that a very vocal and dynamic MLA of the Congress has been criticising Girish’s leadership and asked Girish to self-introspect on this matter and added that his leadership is definitely questionable.
“The disqualification petition against the 10 MLAs who defected was filed on the eve of the Assembly Session thus ensuring that the proceedings went on without any hindrance,” he said while questioning why it took so long to file the disqualification petition given the fact that there was actual split in the Congress Party.
“What had happened was only the MLAs had defected and there was no split in the Congress Party which was sufficient ground to file immediate disqualification petition, but Girish took his own sweet time,” alleged Prashant.
While questioning what exactly Girish wanted, Prashant dismissed suggestion that probably there was trust deficit with the GFP that was making Congress wary of their party.
He argued that in fact it was the Congress that ditched the GFP at the last minute by clandestinely fielding candidate in Fatorda Constituency when talks of alliance were going on.
Vice President of the party Dilip Prabhudessai while admitting that his party was part of the National Democratic Alliance, however, said they have not showed any mercy to the BJP be it in the Assembly or outside the Assembly and therefore they ought to be considered as Opposition party.
