MANY VENTURES, NO GAINS AS HOPEFULS FEEL HOPELESS

TEAM HERALD

teamherald@herald-goa.com

PANJIM: Even 24 hours was not enough for the Congress to pick four seats, three of which still have potentially winnable candidates, and put an end to remorse, resentment and a glooming threat of rear guard retaliatory action by the hopefuls, who are feeling hopeless.

At the end of Friday, the Congress could not decide who to field in Canacona, Sanvordem, Fatorda and Mormugao. At the end of Saturday, it struggled to decide on one. And what was that decision? To give up Canacona altogether to the NCP and re-divert defector Vijai Pai Khot to the NCP in “get a candidate with the seat” deal, which the NCP is likely to accept.

Though this hasn’t been announced officially by the party it has been told to Herald by party spokesman Avinash Bhosle and confirmed by other sources.

So in a span of one day, Vijai Pai Khot has moved from being a BJP man, to an ex-MLA to an almost Congressman, to an almost NCP man. As the sun rises on Sunday, Vijai Pai Khot’s current identity will be revealed.

Far away in Canacona, an increasingly frustrated Isidore Fernandes waited to hear that the Congress had pulled off this fastest one — offer the seat to NCP to deflect any pressure and move Isidore out of the picture.

The day began with by the incharge of the Goa desk J S Brar, crisis manager and senior AICC General Secretary Hariprasad and AICC’s Sudhakar Reddy meeting Pratapsing Rane, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and GPCC working president Fransisco Sardinha in a bid to reach some kind of a consensus (see details of this meeting in the time chart alongside). This meeting took place at Hotel Crown on top of the Latin quarter of Panjim. At the end of this meeting, no conclusions were reached except a broad feel of what each were thinking.

Post this, Rane, Brar, Reddy left early for another surprise meeting with Trinamool Congress’ Dr Wilfred D Souza to do a deal on the Saligao seat. These sideshows apart, it was back to the Congress office. Here most of the leaders (barring the Chief Minister who left early for Margao) worked in on a consensus document with their views on each of the seats which was sent to Delhi.

However, till late evening there was no word as both Sonia Gandhi and the main pointsman General Secretary Ahmed Patel were not available. And by the day ended, the Congress lost yet another wicket. Veteran Victoria Fernandes resigned from the party and is likely to contest against yet another Congress candidate.

The delay has resulted in a fair bit of unrest. In Mormugao, Sankalp Amonkar has withdrawn into a shell.  In Fatorda, Vijai Sardesai carried on his campaign with his supporters clearly focused on that vital information from Delhi. The presence of M K Sheikh, another aspirant at the returning officers office to pick up nomination forms further created confusion.

Clearly, the delay has reached crisis proportions. And could well lead to rebellious proportions.

One of them Isidore Fernandes, appears to have already been sacrificed.