TEAM HEALD
MARGAO: Former Power Minister, Alexio Sequeira told Herald on Friday that AICC secretary Dr Chella Kumar has told him that a report on the removal of John Fernandes is presently pending before the AICC president Sonia Gandhi and hoped that the party leadership in Delhi take an immediate call and remove John as the GPCC chief.
Suspension of Congress south Goa district president, Subhash Faldesai has brought together a whole lot of leaders arrayed against GPCC chief John Fernandes, with some of them taking up the issue with the party leadership in Delhi for the immediate removal of the party president.
A section of senior party leaders are believed to have rallied behind the beleaguered district president, promising to take up his issue with the party bosses in Delhi.
Giving a clean chit to the district president on the charge of anti-party activity levelled by the GPCC, Aleixo said Subhash is a duly elected president and cannot be suspended, unless proved that he indulged in anti-party activity. “Subhash is one of the few Congressmen who is a die hard Congress worker, who has no ambition to contest the election and believes in the party’s secular principles. Is this the reward Subhash had to receive from the party. This is a sad day for the Congress in Goa”, he said.
Alexio said the Congress in Goa is undergoing a sad phase which he cannot describe in words. “A person who is not even a member has been allowed to address a press conference in the Congress house against a respected leader like Rane. Can you believe that such a thing has happened in the party”, he asked, while seeking to know whether Congressmen are living in an era of dictatorship in the GPCC or is there something wrong with the people calling the shots.
Alexio’s comments comes after a group of Congress leaders from Salcete called on him at his residence last night to brief him on Faldesai’s suspension and to demand the removal of the GPCC president.
Though Subhash has been accused of anti-party activities during the Lok Sabha poll, party leaders said the immediate cause behind the suspension could be Faldesai’s function at the district office to commemorate Sadbhava Diwas, wherein some of the party leaders called for a new leadership to lead the party in Goa.
When Herald contacted the suspended district president, Faldesai firmly denied that he had indulged in anti-party activities throughout his 32 year old career in the congress. “They accuse me for not properly signing the polling agents forms. But, I am innocent”, he said.
Incidentally, Faldesai said he has not received any suspension notice from the GPCC till Friday evening and has come to know about the GPCC decision through the media.
