PANAJI
The arrival on Friday of former Union finance minister, P Chidambaram, on a three-day visit to oversee the Congress’ preparations for the upcoming 2022 assembly elections due in February-March next year is being keenly watched as Goa’s political arena appears pregnant with inter-party migration by some key heavyweight and lesser-known politicians.
Chidambaram who is the seniormost central emissary of the Congress given charge of overseeing election-related work has already made multiple teams and will arrive along with the AICC general secretary in-charge Gundu Rao on Friday, the party’s State president Girish Chodankar said.
He will stay put in the State for three days and apart from public engagements, he is expected to spearhead backchannel manoeuvres which could eventually lead to some heavyweight politicos embracing the grand old party which has since 2017 faced a series of lateral desertions.
As many as 13 legislators have quit the party and joined the diametrically opposed ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since it emerged as the single largest party in 2017 but friterred the post-result advantage and failed to take its chance at government formation over apparent leadership issues.
Keenly watched in the next few days will be the moves of Ports Minister Michael Lobo, who over the last few days has publicly aired dissenting views and reports have suggested he is looking to switch camps over the political ambitions of his sarpanch-wife Delilah and a larger Bardez and State-level role for himself.
BJP’s State president, Sadanand Tanavade, meanwhile, made light of Lobo’s public utterances saying it is the media which is playing it up.
According to Tanavade, the party has its own style and processes to follow vis-a-vis election strategy and management and cannot go by off-the-cuff comments of individual leaders.
Asked if the party is contemplating any move to rein in Lobo, Tanavade said it is beyond the purview of the State unit’s leadership and is a matter for the party’s central leaders who are in-charge of the election affairs in Goa, to deal with.
Also watched keenly will be moves, if any, by some from the group of 10 ex-Congress legislators who switched sides to the BJP.
On Thursday, GPCC chief Chodankar claimed that six to eight MLAs of the ruling party are not interested in remaining there as they are not confident of winning on that party’s lotus symbol.
Chodankar, however, sought to imply that he is not referring to the 10 MLAs who defected but others who he claimed are “in touch.”
“As far as defectors are concerned we are very clear no defectors will be taken back. Many other sitting BJP MLAs are in touch with us,” Chodankar claimed.
