PANAJI
All India Congress Committee's senior observer for the 2022 Goa assembly polls P Chidambaram on Thursday finally read out the 'fine print' behind photos of party leader Rahul Gandhi and Goa Forward president Vijai Sardesai, which may have skipped popular notice previously.
Chidambaram said that no formal alliance had been stamped out in the recent and controversial meeting between Gandhi and Sardesai, adding that Sardesai had only expressed his party's support to defeat the BJP in Goa and that the Congress had accepted that offer of support.
"This word alliance is used indiscriminately. So far we have had one party leader, Vijai Sardesai, who came to Delhi and said in order to defeat the BJP my party offers its support to the Congress party. Rahul Gandhi said we accept the support. That is where it stands. All other details will have to be discussed further," Chidambaram said.
Commenting on the recent exit of former Chief Minister and now former Congress MLA Ravi Naik into the BJP, Chidambaram said: "Somebody has already mentally left the party. Now physically if he says he has left the party, what does that matter. Somebody mentally left the party two years ago. The body is following the mind now. That's all".
The senior Congress leader also said that the Nationalist Congress Party leaders were still speaking to state Congress party leaders over formation of an alliance for the upcoming polls.
He also said that the Congress would be putting out its first list of candidates soon, adding that the Pradesh Congress Committee would be meeting every few days and make appropriate recommendations.
"We intended to process these recommendations very quickly and take it to central election committee. Not able to give you a specific date, but you have my word that we intend to accelerate the process so that our candidates can campaign much earlier than usual. The complaint is that we announce our candidates very late. We are trying to avoid that," Chidambaram also said.
"We will select candidates who satisfy the conditions of loyalty, integrity, acceptability to the workers and winnability among the larger electorate. We are going to stick to that core philosophy," he also said.
Commenting on the phenomenon of defections, Chidambaram said that if the Congress comes to power in 2024 at the Centre it would work towards plugging loopholes in the existing anti-defection law.
"The bane of politics has been defection. It's a shame. Goan people should not forgive those who get elected on one party ticket and shamelessly defect to another party. That is the bane of Goan politics," Chidambaram said, adding that the entire BJP-led coalition government was full of defectors.
"I have said in several meetings that the defection law is a defective law. This law has several loopholes which people are using. If a Congress government is formed in 2024, certainly those loopholes would be removed," Chidambaram also said.
