Team Herald
PANJIM: In what could be termed as a major revolt, a group of young Congress leaders has lobbied against the State party leadership demanding that the recently formed 17-member Election and Co-ordination Committee be dissolved, claiming that the faces which were rejected by the people in the 2012 polls are members of the committee.
Threatening to move out of the party and form an alternative to present the people of Goa in the 2017 polls, young leaders on the party, including Goa Pradesh Congress Committee secretary Durgadas Kamat, have set April 30 as the deadline for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and Goa desk in charge Digvijay Singh, to dissolve the committee.
Addressing media persons, Kamat said they have sent a letter to Singh, appealing to him to dissolve the committee and appoint young faces on it.
“Sadly, the State leaders do not seem to have learned a lesson from the drubbing the party received in the 2012 Assembly polls, as many of the faces which were then rejected by the people of Goa are being resurrected in the committee,” the young leaders said in their letter to Singh.
“Our party has become the butt of innumerable jokes among the youth of Goa. One common refrain is that it is not a ‘Grand Old Party’ but a ‘party of old grandfathers’,” the letter signed by Kamat, Congress Minority Cell leader Tanvir Khatib and Congress worker Raylan Cabral, added.
“Young faces are essential for the party to survive in Goa, as the present mood not just in Goa, but in the entire country is favouring young and new leaders,” Kamat said, adding that they will organize a youth convention, to show their strength, during which the future course of action would be decided.
The committee headed by president Luizinho Faleiro consists of MLAs Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco and Pandurang Madkaikar along with former Home minister Ravi Naik, former union minister Ramakant Khalap, former state unit president Subhash Shirodkar, Moti Dessai and others.
