PANAJI
Taking no chances, the Congress is taking seriously reports circulating in political circles of a possible dissolution of the Goa Assembly and preparing for a mid-term poll along with the Lok Sabha general election due in the first half of 2019.
Former chief minister Digambar Kamat who spoke to the media on Saturday after a Congress legislature party meeting said his party is in the midst of starting a state-wide membership drive to rake in donations and create awareness against the lack of governance and corruption in Goa.
The only Chief Minister to complete a five-year term (2007-12) in office in the three decades since Goa attained statehood in 1987, Kamat said "anything is possible" in the current situation wherein there is no governance and the coalition's allies are bickering.
Kamat said, the party is gearing up for the Mandrem and Shiroda by-elections and also the upcoming Lok Sabha and possibly a simultaneous mid-term election to the Goa legislative assembly.
"Nobody knows what will happen in the coming days," Kamat said, adding that the Congress party is trying to channelise the public's anger through a 'jan sampark' campaign by highlighting the state government's failures by visiting homes across all 40 constituencies.
Goa has been caught in a bizarre political and administrative logjam owing to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's debilitating battle against pancreatic cancer which he was diagnosed with in February. Parrikar has been in and out of hospitals in New York, New Delhi, Mumbai and Goa ever since.
More recently, Parrikar has been confined to his private residence in Dona Paula, since returning from a nearly month-long treatment at AIIMS Delhi on October 14, earning intense criticism and calls for his resignation for running the government in absentia.
According to Opposition Leader Chandrakant Kavlekar, the 'jan sampark' campaign will be launched from January 5 and party workers will visit people's homes to highlight the government's failures and simultaneously collect donations by issuing donation coupons of Rs 50, Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations.
Kavlekar also said that the party plans a grand culmination of its ongoing Jan Akrosh campaign, with a massive public meeting on December 20 at the Lohia Maidan in Margao.
