After losing power, it was very much anticipated that there would be a vertical split in Congress as power-hungry MLAs weren’t happy about missing out on the opportunity to taste power.
After Vishwajit started the trend of quitting, the high command should have stepped in and taken some mitigative measures, but they did not.
The Gandhis failed to keep the flock of 17 together. The MLAs always complained that the Congress high command does not have time for them whenever an appointment was sought.
The Gandhis always failed to give any importance to Goa since Sonia-Rahul took over the reins. For them, Goa was just a holiday destination.
Since 2017, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka have been to Goa several times, but it was said it was their personal visit, and there was nothing official about it.
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
The Congress in Goa has collapsed like a pack of cards. In the last four and half years, the party has lost 14 MLAs – from 17 MLAs, their number has fallen to just four.
Needless to say, the remaining four MLAs cannot be called actual Congressmen or have another foot elsewhere.
One fails to understand, after being the single largest party, why the party failed? Why did the elected representatives fail their voters?
The simple reason is infighting and the greed for power. In 2017, Congress saw the government slip out of its hands as there were too many chief minister aspirants who kept self-interest above the party.
While the AICC observer Digvijay Singh killed the Congress’ chances of forming a government by delaying the letter to the Governor, the Gandhis – Sonia and Rahul, cannot absolve themselves from the failure.
Simple reason, while BJP got 13 seats, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who rang his then Man Friday Nitin Gadkari in the wee hours and sent to form BJP led government in the State by hook or crook.
Gadkari stitched an alliance with the Opposition MLAs like Vijai Sardesai and Rohan Khaunte – who were the prime reason for BJP’s fall from 21 seats in 20212 to 13 in 2017.
Moreover, he acceded to all demands of Vijai, Khaunte and Sudin Dhavalikar, including seat sharing, portfolios, and, more importantly, bringing back Manohar Parrikar, the then Defence Minister in State politics.
This was all possible due to the active involvement of BJP high command, which was available at a single phone ring.
On the other hand, Congress continued to delay finalising their CLP leader. Digvijay Singh took his own sweet time thinking Vijai and Rohan would never align with BJP. he failed to anticipate what Modi-Shah are capable of and continued his bolbachans. At the same time, the Congress High Command – the Gandhis had no clue what was going around or had very little interest in Goa. That is how Congress lost Goa from JAWS OF VICTORY.
Even after the debacle in 2017, Congress or the Gandhis did not retrospect where they failed and try to improve simply because Goa was never on their mind.
After losing power, it was very much anticipated that there would be a vertical split in Congress as power-hungry MLAs weren’t happy about missing out on the opportunity to taste power.
After Vishwajit started the trend of quitting, the high command should have stepped in and taken some mitigative measures, but they did not.
The Gandhis failed to keep the flock of 17 together. The MLAs always complained that the Congress high command does not have time for them whenever an appointment was sought.
The Gandhis always failed to give any importance to Goa since Sonia-Rahul took over the reins. For them, Goa was just a holiday destination.
Since 2017, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka have been to Goa several times, but it was said it was their personal visit, and there was nothing official about it.
Only once did Rahul Gandhi arrive in Goa in a Bollywood style in Goa Assembly to meet Parrikar when he was sick and made some statement on Rafale in Delhi.
Otherwise, there was no official meeting even with the GPCC president, Leader of Opposition or even the MLAs. One would question why?
On Tuesday after Luizinho Faleiro’s exit, Rahul Gandhi is seen summoning some leaders to Delhi, persuading them not to leave Congress.
We ask, why did Mr Gandhi not take such a step them? How many times he has come to Goa to raise the morale of the party workers in Goa since 2017 by interacting with them?
Today, the question on every Goan’s mind is why Goa is not important for Gandhis only because it has three parliamentary seats, which is negligible in national politics?
Another question that would be on Goans’ mind, who are fed p with BJP’s brand of politics, would be the guarantee that if they vote for Congress again, the same things of 2017 would not be repeated again is?