MARGAO
Guess who in the Congress is empowered to take a call on the question of alliance with the Goa Forward party and Revolutionary Goans Party – the local Congress leadership or the Party High Command.
Strange it may seem, but true that Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief Amit Patkar has said that the question of alliance will be decided when Congress Goa Desk in-Charge, Manikrao Thakare arrives in Goa on Friday.
Patkar’s statement did not go down well with the rival faction of the party, comprising of the MLAs and other senior leaders, who asserted that Thakare had categorically left it to the local leadership to decide on the alliance proposal.
In fact, the anti-Patkar camp in the Congress says that Patkar’s statement that the High Command will take a call on the alliance proposal has perplexed the local party leadership, including members of the Legislative Assembly, who have publicly batted for the alliance.
Squarely blaming GPCC chief Amit Patkar for the suspense on the twin questions of alliance with the two regional parties and on candidate selection, a senior Congress leader pointed out that some of the party leaders are planning to send a SOS to Thakare and other party leadership to direct the Congress president not to decide on candidates in certain seats. “We have come across a situation wherein the party leadership is toying with a proposal to nominate a candidate in one of the seats in Salcete when the candidate’s wife, who is a panch member, is part of the BJP. We have conveyed to the High Command to ensure that candidates shortlisted by the Patkar camp are not declared in haste,” the leader informed.
