PANJIM: Contradicting remarks made by Congressmen over toppling the BJP-led coalition, newly-appointed Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Shantaram Naik said his priority will be to strengthen the party at grassroots level and not to dethrone the government.
“We will not pull down the government because the government will collapse on its own. But we will also not shirk from our responsibility to form a government. However, our top priority is building the party organisation at the grassroots level,” he said soon after taking charge from outgoing president Luizinho Faleiro.
Earlier this week, AICC Secretary Girish Chodankar had said the party was eager to topple the BJP-led government in collaboration with other parties but without compromising on its core principles.
As the two-time Rajya Sabha MP chalks out plans to lift the sagging morale of the party cadres after the BJP pulled the plug on them to grab power in the State, Naik said he is reassessing why the party lost in other constituencies.
“I have been assessing which constituencies we lost (2017 Assembly elections) and why did we lose those seats. I will not touch the constituencies which have Congress MLAs because they are nursing their areas,” he said explaining the strategy to boost the party’s image in the coming days. The party chief also revealed he would be studying booth-wise voting patterns, a task to be assigned to the workers. He has also proposed to appoint 5 to 6 committees to deal with various government welfare schemes in order to advise and help the people to avail benefits.
The senior politician who claims to have all the records on his ‘i-pad,’ said he will also revise the list of Congressmen as some have quit the party. “I have all the information including the legal aspects readily available on tablet… I was the first person (MP) to use i-pad in the Rajya Sabha,” he said.
Outgoing President Faleiro said he always worked towards strengthening the party even though he was initially reluctant to take over as President. “Soniaji (AICC President Sonia Gandhi) requested me to take over the challenge of Goa. I was reluctant. At that time I was in charge of the north-eastern states. There was no personal agenda. It was purely for the Congress and bringing discipline, unity and strengthening it,” Faleiro said.
He expressed his gratitude to the people for reposing faith in the party in the February elections by returning it as the single largest party. During his tenure as party chief, Faleiro claimed that Congress defeated the BJP, including former CM Laxmikant Parsekar and seven ministers.
