PANAJI
Congress national president Rahul Gandhi will hold private meetings with the Congress Legislative Party (CLP), a delegation from the Goa Mining Peoples’ Front (GMPF), a delegation of people from the Port Town who are directly affected by coal pollution, a delegation of people directly affected by the new Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) notification and members of NGO Goencho Avaaz on Saturday.
The meetings will be held from 10 am to 10.30 am at a resort on the outskirts of Panaji. Gandhi will leave for his next commitment at 10:45. The Congress president’s schedule was uncertain till the last moment with the Goan leaders unsure about whether he would be in Goa just on the 8th, or stay overnight.
However, Gandhi, who was supposed to reach the Bambolim stadium at 5:30 on Friday evening and address the booth workers at 6:00 got delayed by almost two hours. Apologising for the delay at the end of his address, he said he had gotten delayed at Vishakapatnam due to bad weather. A restless crowd who had gathered as early as 4:30 to hear Gandhi’s address, were shown various videos on the Congress’ campaign for a good two hours before speeches began.
Videos included clips of BJP national president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing crowds on one hand, with Gandhi himself addressing crowds on the other hand.
The videos notably mentioned the not-even month-old Pulwama terrorist attack, and how the BJP had wasted little time politicising the attacks and using the same to gain political mileage over their rallies immediately after the attack.
Several Congress leaders including the students’ wing (NSUI) president Ahraz Mulla, Women’s wing president Pratima Coutinho, general secretary Amarnath Panjikar, and notably candidate hopefuls for the LS Congress tickets Francisco Sardinha from South Goa and Ramakant Khalap from North Goa addressed the waiting audience.
