PANAJI
Congress blocks and in particular Goa Congress president Luizinho Faleiro on Tuesday welcomed the new Goa Congress desk in-charge, All India Congress Committee secretary Dr A Chellakumar, with Faleiro taking the opportunity for the first time since March 12 to fix the responsibility of Congress’ failure to form the government on the outgoing AICC general secretary in-charge Digvijaya Singh.
After maintaining a stoic silence on the matter while laying the entire blame on Goa Forward Party for betraying Goan electorate, Faleiro finally broke into words after a meeting of block Congress presidents convened by Chellakumar at the Congress House.
“If Chellakumar was the general secretary in-charge on March 11, history would have been different,” Faleiro remarked in response to a media query, even while the new desk in-charge appeared ill at ease.
Speaking about his plans for the Goa Congress desk, Chellakumar disclosed that he intends to ensure the party’s victory at the two upcoming by-polls, in Valpoi and possibly in Panaji, if Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar decides to contest from the constituency. “We have a lot of potential and aspiring candidates in both the constituencies. Parrikar hijacked victory from us. We will now go all out to defeat the BJP in both by-polls and after the by-polls, we will form the government,” Chellakumar stated.
Chellakumar, who took over the reins of the desk on April 29, stated that it was because Parrikar created the perception that he would be the chief minister of Goa after the elections that the former Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar lost his seat. “Part of the reason for defeat of the former CM is Parrikar. We thank him for helping our campaign in Mandrem,” he said.
He further insisted that all is finally well among the aspiring chief ministerial candidates from the top echelons of the Goa Congress. “After the by-polls, there will be no problem in putting together a majority. We don’t have any leadership issues and we have never had any such issues in the past. It was a picture wrongly created by some to suit their agenda,” the senior national Congressman declared.
It was learnt that a steady stream of prominent faces have begun to trickle into the Congress in Valpoi on the backdrop of the imminent by-polls. However, with senior Congress and former Leader of Opposition Pratapsing Raoji Rane still sitting on the fence, 15 remaining Congress MLAs are scheduled to put up a united front at Valpoi over the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Congress announced an extension in deadline for its membership drive, which was scheduled to conclude on May 15. Block presidents have been given a target of securing two lakh new members across the State.
It was disclosed that the organisational elections to the party booths, blocks, district committees and Pradesh-level committee will conclude by July. “There may be a new GPCC president,” Faleiro hinted, while urging those who believe in the Congress ideology to join the party and to participate in the election process.
