MARGAO
Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat struggled to justify the Congress party’s decision to field candidates who had joined the Congress recently, saying the party in some areas has propped up candidates from the organization, even as he said that those who had embraced the Trinamool Congress are returning to the Congress.
Asked to explain the nomination of some of the party candidates, whose names figure in the first three lists, since they had joined the party lately, Kamat said people such as Michael Lobo, whose name figures in the third list is an exception. Similarly, he said the party has rewarded Congress leader Janardhan Bhandari in Canacona, who has been the party’s face in Canacona.
“I say Michael is an exception since he had joined the Opposition party when he was a minister and has quit the party and the ministerial post at a time when the state and the centre are being ruled by the BJP,” he said, adding that Michael must have quit the ruling party since he must have got the pulse of the people that the ruling dispensation should not come back to power.
He said the Congress had adopted a criterion by sending 2-3 names as candidates to the party central election committee. “Take the case of Janardhan Bhandari. He is identified as a Congress leader because of his work put in for the party,” he added.
Asked whether the Congress party has failed in grooming candidates from the organization in the last five years and the party had to depend on imported candidates to contest the coming polls, Kamat struggled for a reply, saying the party has in some places fielded candidates from the organization.
He, however, said that the party is acting as per the emerging political situation in the state, charging the Trinamool Congress party for poaching its party leaders. “If we see today’s situation, many had gone to the TMC, but they are coming back. They must have gone arbitrarily. They must have been promised something big, which has not materialized and they want to come back,” he said.
When asked whether the Congress is playing a game of one-upmanship with the TMC, throwing open the party doors to those who had earlier gone to the Mamata Didi-led party, Kamat was categorical in saying that the TMC was involved in poaching the Congress leaders. “I can see that people are now angry with the TMC and are ready to teach the party a lesson in the coming polls. Even Mamata Didi will realize that the people of Goa are different,” he said.
