THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The emergence of a proposed Goa Congress Party and its reported bid to seek registration with the Election Commission of India (ECI) ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections has sparked political speculation, even as the Congress dismissed talk of a split in its Goa unit. The buzz comes amid simmering internal dissent over the appointment of Girish Chodankar as Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president, fuelling rumours of unrest within the party ranks.
Highly placed Congress sources claimed that disgruntled leaders and workers, many of whom had either quit the party or were expelled in recent years, have come together to float a separate outfit under the Congress banner. According to the sources, former GPCC president Amit Patkar is believed to be the "mastermind" behind the exercise, although he is not expected to take a public lead.
"All those disgruntled Congress workers who had quit the party or were thrown out have come together and are moving ahead to launch a separate Congress party. This was expected as Patkar was eyeing such a move ever since he was replaced. He has repeatedly maintained that there is another Congress party," a senior party source alleged.
The development comes at a time when factionalism within the State Congress has resurfaced following the leadership change, with several leaders privately expressing dissatisfaction over Chodankar's appointment.
However, the Congress leadership has outright rejected speculation of a split, instead accusing the ruling BJP of engineering another proxy political outfit to divide anti-BJP votes before the Assembly elections.
"There is no split in the Congress. The party is united, stronger than ever, and steadily expanding its support across every region of Goa. Attempts to spread rumours and create confusion will not succeed," Chodankar said.
Launching a sharp attack on the BJP, Chodankar alleged that the ruling party has a history of encouraging new political outfits whenever it senses anti-incumbency and these are “temporary proxy”.
"Whenever the BJP senses public anger and anti-incumbency, it falls back on the same formula-float or support new parties to divide votes instead of answering for its failures. After years of rising prices, unemployment, law and order concerns, corruption allegations, land controversies and broken promises, the BJP knows it cannot seek votes on governance alone," he said.
Drawing parallels with previous political experiments in Goa, Chodankar said, "First it was 'Save Goa', then 'Goa Vikas Party', and now the so-called Goa Congress Party. All these are sponsored and propped up by the BJP to split anti-BJP secular votes”
He claimed that Goan voters are politically mature enough to recognise such attempts.
"Goans are politically aware and will not fall for another engineered experiment designed to benefit the BJP. Every vote diverted through such tactics only helps the ruling party escape accountability," he said.
Maintaining that the people of Goa were looking for political change, Chodankar said the BJP's alleged strategy of dividing opposition votes would fail in the upcoming elections.
"The people of Goa want change, honest governance and a government that works for Goans, not political projects funded to manipulate the electoral outcome. This time, the BJP's divide-and-rule strategy will fail because the people have seen through the game," he added.
