MARGAO
Day two of the ongoing exercise initiated by AICC Goa desk in-charge, Dinesh Gundu Rao to seek feedback of party leaders on the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) leadership saw senior leaders, including those who had gone to the public in the recent past, seeking a leadership change, giving their opinion on the vexed leadership issue.
Sources have now informed that Gundu Rao’s visit to the State is primarily aimed at seeking feedback on party leaders and workers before the High Command takes a call on the question of replacing incumbent GPCC Chief Girish Chodankar.
While former Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane called on the AICC Goa desk in-charge in Panjim on Friday morning, a host of party leaders, including MLAs and the lone MP Francisco Sardinha called on Gundu Rao at the Margao-based hotel in the evening.
Till late evening, former Chief Minister, Ravi Naik, Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco, besides former Power Minister Alexio Sequeira were spotted at the hotel lobby waiting to be called inside for a one-on-one meeting with Gundu Rao.
Those who met the Goa desk in-charge included South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha, Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro and former Union Minister Ramakant Khalap.
When contacted after coming out of the meeting with Gundu Rao, South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha told The Goan that he has drawn attention of the Goa desk in-charge on the minus points as well as the plus points that can take the party to great heights in the future. “I had a meeting with Gundu Rao, wherein I have given my views to the party leadership on the GPCC leadership”, Sardinha said.
Sardinha is one of the few vocal senior leaders who had in the past batted for a change in the party leadership to take on the BJP in the 2022 election. In fact, Sardinha was on record in the past saying that he will not shy away from shouldering the responsibility of leading the party in the election if asked to do so by the high command.
Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro is another senior leader from Salcete, one who was perceived as being in the race for GPCC post, also called on Gundu Rao and has given his views to the AICC leader.
Another former chief minister Ravi Naik, who had in the recent past expressed his reservations over the GPCC leadership, after Girish roped in Rajesh Verenkar in the party, was waiting in the hotel lobby late evening, for his turn to be called inside.
Sources in the Congress informed that while the pro-Girish camp, including his foot soldiers had called on Gundu Rao to ensure there’s no change in the GPCC leadership, some of the senior leaders, who called on the AICC leader, has pressed for a change in leadership ahead of the 2022 Assembly election.
