The exodus of 10 MLAs out 15 has not just affected Congress in the Goa Legislative Assembly but also crushed the morale of the party leadership and workers who are yet to come to terms with the political developments during the week.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) is in doldrums ever since the results of the Lok Sabha election and Assembly by-polls were announced on May 23 this year, where the party’s president lost in North Goa and three other candidates lost in the by-polls. The merger-quake of 10 MLAs has destroyed the party’s structure and questions being raised about its identity.
Goa Desk-in-charge Dr Chella Kumar has stated that the former president of the party Rahul Gandhi has always been in favour of structural reforms in the state and change in leadership. However, in the absence of GPCC president the party needs an overhauling from the bottom to the top.
He said, “We will restructure the organisation right from the block level. Wherever our blocks exist, we will reorganise them and where they cease to exist, we will appoint new blocks. We will take stock of the situation and reorganise and restructure the organisational strength once again.”
Responding to queries on the structural existence of the party in the state in the light of the GPCC president Girish Chodankar’s resignation, he said that the party’s constitution does not dissolve the whole state structure. “When the AICC president resigns it’s the AICC which ceases to exist and when the PCC president resigns it’s only the PCC which ceases to exist. Therefore the structure in Goa remains while only the PCC would have to be reappointed”, he added.
Girish last month resigned from the post of GPCC president in support of the resignation of Rahul Gandhi. But Chella Kumar is of the opinion that with no Congress President in place, his resignation becomes null as it has not been accepted. But Girish does not believe so and has recused himself from handling the party affairs. This has led to further damage to the party in times of the current crisis.
One of the senior leaders and part of the GPCC expressed that the current development called for an urgent meeting of the state committee. “However, neither the desk-in-charge nor the GPCC president has found it fit to take stock of the situation and huddle up. It is more than six months that the PCC has met and even after the election debacle we did not meet”, he added.
He further said that the current political crisis is a result of the lack of leadership, which could not keep the elected members united. He said, “The tickets weren’t discussed and neither after the defeat the (GPCC) met, to take into account of what went wrong. This all leads to possibilities that the others will feel that the leadership is disinterested. There is a trust deficit within the party and everybody is moving in different directions”
Girish on the other hand has remained firm that after his resignation on June 28, he ceases to be responsible for the party affairs. Since his resignation, he has neither held a press conference nor met party leaders in the Congress House.
He said, “I have submitted my resignation and therefore I do not hold the post anymore. In this context I cannot call for any meeting and it is now the prerogative of the desk-in-charge to look after the party affairs.”
In the last five years the GPCC has had three presidents, Luizinho Faleiro ahead of the Assembly elections of 2017, then former Rajya Sabha MP late Shantaram Naik and then Girish. However, after the failure of the party to form the government in 2017 despite being the single largest in the Assembly led to the collapse of its blocks and then further the collapse of many other structures within the party.
Even the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year could not infuse enthusiasm within its cadre and many blocks in the state did not exist even on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls. Many have linked the debacle in North Goa to the fact that many block level committees either did not exist or only existed on paper.
When Chella Kumar was asked to respond on the party’s weakened position in the State, he said “This is a phase and the party will come out of the situation. We will reorganise ourselves.”
WAY FORWARD FOR CONGRESS MLAs
After the exodus five MLAs still hold the fort for Congress in the Goa Legislative Assembly, which includes four former chief ministers Pratapsingh Rane, Luizinho Faleiro, Digambar Kamat and Ravi Naik, and Curtorim MLA Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco. However, even after four days of the exodus and three of the defecting MLAs now sworn-in as cabinet ministers in the Pramod Sawant-led government in the State, the five MLAs are yet to meet to elect a Leader of Opposition from amongst themselves.
An upset Reginaldo said that he was pained at the sorry state of affairs of the party as even after 96 hours of the MLAs defecting, the party has not planned how to go about. “It is 96 hours already and our party leadership did not call for a meeting of the MLAs. I understand that when we were 17 MLAs, we were unable to decide on having a leader but now with even 5 MLAs, we are not able to choose a leader of the party in the Assembly”, he stated.
The Speaker of the House Rajesh Patnekar has confirmed that the Congress can still elect a Leader of Opposition as it has the required numbers. The minimum number of MLAs for any non-ruling side to claim for the post of the Leader of Opposition is 10 percent of the total strength of the House. In Goa the opposition party needs 4 whereas the Congress has 5 MLAs.
Sources informed that Reginaldo is the front runner for the post of the Leader of Opposition. Nevertheless, until the five MLAs do not meet a decision will not be taken. Chella Kumar on Thursday and Friday met the five MLAs individually, however, until late Saturday evening the five were still to meet together formally to elect their leader.
Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro has already expressed that he will not be taking up the responsibility in the House and even senior leader Pratapsingh Rane has refused to take up the responsibility.
The monsoon session of the Assembly begins on Monday July 15. However, even the MLAs who have been dropped from the cabinet to accommodate the new Ministers have stated that they would sit in the opposition. The dropped MLAs include three Goa Forward Party MLAs, Vijai Sardesai, Vinod Palyekar, Jayesh Salgaonkar and Independent MLA from Porvorim Rohan Khaunte.
