the goan I network
PANAJI
The Goa unit of the Indian National Congress on Wednesday said that the party stood by national Congress president Rahul Gandhi, and said that Gandhi should not step down as party president.
Following a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) at the Congress headquarters in Panaji, Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar said that the party had collectively discussed and did not want Gandhi to resign.
“The party will of course have to examine and ponder about what led to the NDA getting a thumping victory in the Lok Sabha elections. We never expected the NDA to get so many seats, but they did, and while we will definitely look into what went wrong, Gandhi cannot take the sole responsibility for the results,” said Kavlekar.
State president Girish Chodankar too backed this stand saying that there were several party leaders at every level of the party who would collectively share the responsibility for the party’s loss.
Meanwhile, Chodankar reiterated that in Goa, he accepted sole responsibility for the party’s loss in three of the four by-polls, and the North Goa seat. He said that the party would try and find out from the people who did not vote for them, why it was so. He reminded however that the BJP had lessened its victory margin in North Goa this time as compared with the 2014 polls.
“Even in constituencies where they usually won, the margin was narrow, or we won,” said Chodankar.
However, he said that in light of the outcome, he was willing to resign as state president if the party wanted him to do so.
Savarkar’s portrait an insult to
Goa’s freedom fighters : Cong
PANAJI : The Congress on Wednesday said that installing a portrait of Hindutva philosopher Damodar Savarkar in the Secretariat was an “insult” to Goa’s freedom fighters. Speaking at the Congress headquarters, Congress president Girish Chodankar questioned the need to install a portrait of Savarkar, when there were hundreds of Goans who had struggled to get Goa’s liberation.
“Even though there were so many leaders who fought hard for Goa’s freedom, the government has chosen to install a portrait of an RSS leader,” said Chodankar.
The Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had on Tuesday inaugurated a huge portrait of Savarkar at the Secretariat urging the youth to keep on looking at portraits like these and to read Savarkar’s autobiography. The CM had also said that Savarkar’s portrait had been erected as many children and youth kept visiting the Secretariat.
