CANACONA
In a severe jolt to the Congress in Canacona, GPCC Secretary Mahadev Dessai, who was denied the party ticket to contest from Canacona constituency along with 46 of the 55 Block Committee members resigned from the Congress and joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday afternoon.
According to sources, the TMC is likely to declare Dessai as its candidate for Canacona in the assembly polls.
The departure of Dessai and key members of the Canacona Block Congress is expected to severely affect the campaign of Congress candidate, Janardhan Bhandari, barely weeks ahead of the February 14 elections.
The 46 Block Committee members who resigned from the Congress include 3 vice-presidents, the general secretary and 3 Secretaries. They along with Dessai joined the TMC in the presence of TMC National Vice President Pavan Varma, Avita Bandodkar and Jayesh Shetgaonkar.
Explaining his decision to break away from the Congress, Dessai blamed the party high command of making use of him and then ignoring him for party ticket, for the sake of a “non-entity on the ground” (Janardhan Bhandari). “I accept that Bhandari is a tall leader at the State level, but he has nothing to do at the ground level and hardly had any contact with booth leaders in Canacona constituency.”
“On the other hand, I had 59 booth leaders who worked with me while I was on a door-to-door campaign. After keeping me in the lurch till the last moment, the Congress then cheated and duped me.”
“Now, 46 of 55 of them (block members) have joined the TMC along with me. The Congress candidate is left with just 9 of the block members,” said Dessai.
The entry of Dessai and 46 former block congress members is expected to give a major boost to TMC’s presence in Canacona. Recently, Gaondongrim ST leader Ashok Velip had also joined TMC.
