“This episode exposes a deeper malaise within the Goa Congress. Under Patkar, the party has become synonymous with groupism. Long-standing workers complain of exclusion. A small coterie makes decisions. Ticket distribution has alienated local leaders. The organisation functions less like a democratic political party and more like a closed private company.
Congress is not a startup that can be run by a single CEO with money and messaging. It is a mass political organisation that survives on collective leadership, ideological clarity and grassroots unity. When workers feel ignored, and factions thrive, defeat becomes inevitable.”
The arrogance of power is usually associated with ruling parties. In Goa today, it defines a party that is nowhere near power. The Congress, battered and humiliated in the Zilla Parishad elections, has responded not with introspection but with denial. At the centre of this collapse stands GPCC president Amit Patkar.
The Zilla Parishad results were unambiguous. The BJP won 32 seats. Congress managed just 11. This was not a national election fought on ideology or charisma. It was a local body contest where alliances, organisations and ground level coordination decide outcomes. Congress failed comprehensively on every count. There is no escaping the fact that this failure flows from the decisions taken by the state leadership.
The most damaging of these decisions was the breakdown of alliances. The rupture with the Revolutionary Goans Party was entirely avoidable. Goa’s political reality is fragmented. No opposition party can afford the luxury of ego-driven politics. Alliances are not signs of weakness. They are instruments of survival. By breaking ties with RGP, Congress ensured vote division in several constituencies, handing the BJP an easy advantage.
Even more puzzling was the complete absence of any serious attempt to work out an understanding with the Aam Aadmi Party. Whether Congress likes it or not, AAP has carved out a space for itself in Goa. Pretending it does not exist is not a strategy. It is self-deception. The refusal to engage only helped the BJP consolidate.
After presiding over this defeat, Patkar’s statement that the BJP’s downfall has begun is not just tone deaf, it is insulting to Congress workers. A party that loses a Zilla Parishad election by such a margin has no credibility in declaring victory narratives. Workers who fought on the ground know the truth. Booths were weak. Cadres were demoralised. Coordination was missing. Empty bravado does not erase these facts.
This episode exposes a deeper malaise within the Goa Congress. Under Patkar, the party has become synonymous with groupism. Long-standing workers complain of exclusion. A small coterie makes decisions. Ticket distribution has alienated local leaders. The organisation functions less like a democratic political party and more like a closed private company.
Congress is not a startup that can be run by a single CEO with money and messaging. It is a mass political organisation that survives on collective leadership, ideological clarity and grassroots unity. When workers feel ignored, and factions thrive, defeat becomes inevitable.
The attempt to highlight the eight seats won in South Goa as a success only reinforces the leadership’s disconnect from reality. South Goa was Congress’s stronghold. In the 2024 parliamentary elections, the Congress GFP alliance had won decisively there. The real question is not why Congress won eight ZP seats, but why it lost the rest in a region it had recently dominated. That erosion should alarm any serious leadership. Instead, it is being brushed aside.
This is not about personal attacks or vendetta politics. It is about accountability. Political parties earn credibility when leaders accept responsibility after defeat. They lose relevance when leaders deny reality and cling to power.
If Amit Patkar believes his strategy was sound, he should place it before the party openly. He should allow a genuine internal review. He should listen to dissent rather than suppress it. If he cannot do that, stepping aside would be an act of responsibility, not weakness.
Goa does not lack voters dissatisfied with the BJP. What it lacks is an opposition that is united, grounded and honest with itself. Until the Congress leadership sheds its arrogance and reconnects with its workers, the Zilla Parishad result will not be a warning. It will be a pattern.
