PANJIM: Girish Chodankar has resigned as president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC). He took to twitter to announce his resignation
“The firm decision of @RahulGandhi Ji to not withdraw his resignation as @INCIndia President, morally does not permit me to continue. The defeat is our collective responsibility, hence I hereby tender my resignation forthwith as @INCGoa President,” Chodankar tweeted.
In his resignation letter to Rahul Gandhi, he wrote “Your decision not willing to continue as the AICC President has personally afflicted me. I feel you are the only hope to revive the Congress party and give people an alternative and positive political narrative at this crucial juncture. This is a belief shared by me, several Congress leaders and our party workers across the country as well as crores of Indians who got a reason to feel hopeful that the politics of love and Nyay (justice) would one day rule us eventually.” He further stated that the defeat in the Lok Sabha elections is a collectively responsibility.
In Goa, Congress won the South Goa seat in the Lok Sabha elections and lost the North Goa which was contested by Chodankar. However, Congress also lost three of the four by-elections, Mandrem, Mapusa and Shiroda.
Panjim was the only seat which the Congress added to its kitty in the Goa Legislative Assembly, which again was attributed to the challenge posed by Taleigao strongman Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate.
In view of the defeats, party leaders questioned the wisdom of the GPCC president in contesting the election when the party needed to galvanise the cadre to remain united as the by-elections in two Assembly constituencies were forced upon the electorate due to defections from the Congress to BJP in Mandrem and Shiroda.
Some of the Congress leaders see Chodankar’s decision to step down as one which was expected for the past one month after the results were announced.
