PANAJI
The Congress, on Sunday, attempted to steal a political march over the Aam Aadmi Party in Goa, by ‘signing’ on former AAP convenor Elvis Gomes into its fold ahead of election season.
Welcoming Gomes into the opposition party, a former bureaucrat and AAP’s chief ministerial candidate in the 2017 assembly elections, state Congress president Girish Chodankar said that the ex-IAS officer had access to AAP’s machinations to destroy the Congress party and his experience would be used to create awareness among the Goan voters about the Arvind Kejriwal-led party’s pro-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh agenda.
Gomes said that while his criticism of the Congress -- when he was an AAP convenor -- was based on fact, added that the Congress, with its secular ideology, was the only political outfit which could see through his ‘Goa First’ agenda.
Earlier on Sunday, Gomes was welcomed into the party to the beat of drums at the Congress state headquarters in Panaji. “He is secular at his core. We will use Elvis’ experience everywhere in Goa to create awareness in the people, who are trapped by the topis (AAP’s trademark caps), about this AAP agenda,” Chodankar said.
Chodankar also said that Elvis’s experience as well as his political and social contacts would be used by the Congress in constituencies like Mandrem, Pernem, Priol, etc.
Gomes said that while he stood by every word of his criticism of the Congress, especially related to the trend of defections, he said that he could not be accused jumping from one political party to another, because he had taken several months to take the decision to join the Congress after quitting the AAP in December last year.
“I stand by every word I have said that time. Was there no defection? There have been defections earlier too. With the last defection of 10 MLAs, a sword was put through the backs of Goans. I had expressed the emotions of Goans... I spoke facts and I will speak facts in the future. For me Goa is first,” Gomes said.
“I was in touch with the Congress leaders. Although I have switched parties... I quit one party eight to nine months back. I did not just jump. I took time to make the switch,” he said.
Gomes also said that he had been assured by the Congress leadership that no defector would be taken back into the party and said that blacking out defectors would be a good political trend.
“I asked (Girish) a hundred times as to whether defectors will be taken back. Till today, the stand is that they will not be taken back. This will be a good cleansing process and those who want a good future for Goa and their children will come to the Congress fold,” Gomes said.
