Recalls of ill-treatment despite being sincere to the party
THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat said that Congress leadership made every attempt to humiliate and demoralise him during his stint as party MLA for ten long years.
Kamat, who defected to BJP in September 2022 along with seven other MLAs, was inducted in Pramod Sawant-led cabinet on Thursday. He returned to the Ministerial office after almost thirteen and half years, after serving as Chief Minister in the Congress regime from 2007-2012.
Speaking during Head On, Kamat recalled how he was mistreated, humiliated and left out by the Congress party, despite giving them a stable government between 2007-2012 and being sincere party leader and MLA, thereafter.
“I was very sincere to the Congress party. They mistreated me; even then, I kept my sincerity. When I was facing several legal battles, being in opposition, Congress never supported me or backed me. I was hurt,” he said.
Recollecting the past, Kamat, the longest standing Margao MLA for almost three decades, lamented that despite being a senior most leader in the party, Congress high command decided not to appoint him as Leader of Opposition in 2017 nor in 2022.
“When we went for elections in 2017 and 2022, Congress did not declare me as CM candidate nor did they appoint me as leader of the opposition. I felt humiliated and that is when I decided (to leave the party),” he said.
Even after winning 16 seats in Goa Assembly elections 2017, the Congress party failed to form the government, with BJP fetching a coalition power under Manohar Parrikar. The Congress party then appointed Chandrakant Kavlekar as the Leader of Opposition, only to defect in July 2019 and join BJP, where he was elevated as deputy chief minister. With no options in hand, the party then appointed Kamat as LoP.
In 2022 elections too, the party nominated the BJP rebel Michael Lobo as the Leader of the Opposition, who along with Kamat and six others, joined ruling BJP in September 2022.
Kamat said that he has got no political bitterness against anyone including ex-CM Manohar Parrikar.
Speaking on Margao politics, Kamat said that till the time people of Margao are with him, he has no fear, irrespective of who is in the fray for assembly polls or municipal polls.
