MARGAO
Senior Congress leader and Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro has admitted that the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee’s decision to contest the Zilla Panchayat elections on the party banner has cost the Congress dearly with the party suffering a drubbing in the just-concluded polls.
In fact, Faleiro said it is very painful to see the party candidates contesting on the party banner losing the elections.
Incidentally, the Congress party headed by Luizinho Faleiro in 2015 had decided against contesting the Zilla Panchayat elections on the Hand Symbol by allowing the candidates to test the political waters independently.
“I was not part of the decision-making to contest the Zilla Panchayat election on the party banner. Before the elections, I had contacted GPCC chief Girish Chodankar when reports did the rounds that the party has decided to contest on the party banner. Girish had that time told me that the GPCC has decided in favour of contesting the ZP polls on the Hand symbol. I had again contacted the GPCC president after the government announced the ZP polls, and he replied back saying there’s no change in the party decision to contest the polls on the party banner,” Faleiro said.
Admitting that the decision to contest the polls on the party banner has cost the Congress dearly, Faleiro said he is of the firm belief that elections to the local grassroot should be left to the individual persons as these elections offer a platform to the grassroot leaders to display their leadership qualities.
“This is one reason why the Congress party headed by me did not contest the 2015 ZP polls on the party banner. I was of the same opinion this time round, but the GPCC chief said the party has this time taken a decision to contest the elections on the party banner,” he added.
Faleiro, who had stepped down as Congress president in 2017 after some MLAs said the Congress can form the government within 24 hours if he quits the post, has called for deep introspection to find out the reasons behind the ZP debacle, Faleiro has suggested rebuilding the Congress party from the grassroots right at the booth level to face the 2022 Assembly election.
“There’s no magic wand to revive the party. We have go to the grassroots right at the booths to rebuild the party,” he said.
