Party in no mood to strongly support its former Chief Minister post the Shah report
There was one missing link on the high powered Congresstable at the press conference of Union environment minister JayanthiNattarajan.
Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat. In a presser which wassupposed to be about Coalgate, but was all about the Shah Commission report,the man who needed to answer all the questions was absent/kept out of thepantheon of party worthies who addressed journalists.
What was surprising was that Kamat was seen at the venuewhere the conference was. He was chatting with other virtually out of workpoliticians like Babush Monseratte. The AICC secretary Sudhakar Reddy has aninteresting answer when asked why Digambar Kamat was not with the Congressleadership.
“That you need to ask him”, said Reddy. Party sources revealthat the GPCC is in no hurry to run to Kamats defense immediately and letevents play out. In fact, given the fact that there is no love lost betweenanyone in the party, it works well to have the former Chief Minister as the focusof attention and ultimately be the fall guy. Yet again Reddy’s reaction to whatthe party plans to do with Kamat was revealing “Let us see what happens. Timewill tell”. In the run up to the last assembly elections Pratap Singh Rane andhis son Vishwajeet has virtually taken over the ticket distribution exercise,paving the way for four Alemaos to contest along with Junior Ranes handpickedcandidates including BJP defectors. The sitting Chief Minister and the thencampaign manager Mauvin Godinho were virtually isolated and that isolation hasreturned.
Godinho, in fact has openly attacked his own party for themining mess. In the post Shah commission scenario there will be one alignmentof the pre election group of the Rane’s and the two AICC honchos JS Brar andSudhakar Reddy with Subhash Shirodkar tagging along. Godinho and the vocalCurtorim MLA Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco will continue as free spiritsstrengthening the opposition voice.
But the harsh reality is that under severe attack, theCongress is moving further and further away from Digambar Kamat, its chiefminister for a full term of five years.
