A beaming Priyanka Gandhi flew into Goa on Friday to a warm welcome. The party mood appeared upbeat as party flags fluttered along roadsides and Congressmen moved in hordes to give final touches to arrangements. Priyanka proceeded to Morpila and interacted with tribal women who put before her issues of the village like water scarcity and lack of network connectivity. She was entertained by tribal dance and music, and for a brief moment, she tried shaking a leg to the beats of tribal music. The charismatic leader later attended a women’s convention at Costa ground, Margao.
Priyanka comes into Goa at a time when the party is rocked by a spate of desertions and resignations. A few days back senior party leader Ravi Naik moved to the BJP. On the eve of her arrival, several grass-root Congressmen quit the party, and even while she was interacting, a staunch party leader from Curtorim Moreno Rebello, whose wife is an elected representative of Zilla panchayat from the constituency, parted ways with the Congress. Worse still is the fact that senior leaders stood divided over the electoral arrangement with Goa Forward.
Divergent views appeared from AICC senior observer for Goa PC Chidambaram and Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Rao. Chidambaram ruled out an alliance with Vijai Sardesai’s party and asserted that Congress has only accepted his offer of support, while Rao went ahead and sent an invite to Sardesai for a meeting on Saturday to discuss alliances issues.
Priyanka’s arrival may have lifted the mood in the Congress camp momentarily, but beneath the surface, there is gloom and uncertainty. Given the itinerary of Priyanka, it’s obvious she came down with a mission to connect with women, understand their issues and give a sense of reassurance. The wooing of women voters and the talk of empowerment is important in electoral politics and we agree that Priyanka is best suited for the job, but you can’t ignore the crisis that is rocking the party.
National leaders, emissaries and election observers are deputed by parties to give a boost to their cadre and leaders ahead of polls, understand issues, troubleshoot and bring about unity. Priyanka may have come in with an altogether different agenda, but as a frontline leader, she could have been a perfect peace diplomat to bring warring sections to the table, especially since the high command has remained unresponsive. When two camps are taking diametrical positions, the Delhi leadership should have stepped in or could have requested Priyanka to hold parleys and resolve the issue.
One would expect the Congress to put its act together and show unity at this stage, especially when other parties were fast closing in on candidates and finalising manifestos. A momentary camaraderie between GPCC President Girish Chodankar and Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat appears to have fallen apart over the alliance issue. Workers leaving the party is a concern, but the internal drift certainly is a bigger one. Leaders talking in contrasting tones are clear indications that all Congressmen are not on one page.
