With elections to the State legislative Assembly just around the corner, you would normally expect political parties stoking and fine-tuning their respective poll campaigns against their rivals around now. But far from calibrating its poll campaigns against its rivals, the Congress party in Goa, which is facing a battle for political survival, appears busy fighting its own.
State Congress president luizinho Faleiro, who was appointed as the head of the party’s State unit in October 2014 to prep the Congress for the 2017 State legislative Assembly elections, faces a tough battle ahead to keep his flock together, even as several legislators appear to be hacking away at his leadership splitting the party ranks.
The Congress, which was ruling the State for seven years at a stretch, was in 2012 reduced to an unprecedented nine lawmakers in the 40 member State legislative Assembly. While the party more than a year ago, sacked one legislator Atanasio Monserrate for anti-party activity, another legislator Mauvin Godinho, from Cortalim, has openly hobnobbed with the Bharatiya Janata Party, even attacking the Congress in several successive State legislative Assembly sessions.
But the troubles for Faleiro and the Congress do not just end here, with other legislators now joining in the dissent brigade.
Chief among them being it’s MlA from Curtorim Aleixo Reginaldo, who has written a letter to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi complaining about the party being too top heavy.
“What I have told Rahul Gandhi ji that he has a simple choice to make in Goa. Whether he backs the old guard in the party which is tainted and is the face of corruption or the new guard, which holds promise, but have not been allowed to perform,” Reginaldo told The Pioneer.
Currently, along with former chief minister Faleiro, some of the key leaders who are vying for a role in allotment for the legislative assembly tickets are Digambar Kamat, Ravi Naik, Francisco Sardinha, Pratapsingh Rane, all of whom are former chief ministers. Another former chief minister Churchill Alemao, who was a part of the Congress party, last week joined the Nationalist Congress Party, after a brief stint with the Trinamool Congress.
“Young Congressmen have been stifled by the old guard for too long. I have also said that Rahul ji should make a decision fast so that it benefits the Congress as well as the state,” Reginaldo said.
Cumbharjua MlA Pandurang Madkaikar, another Congress legislator who has threatened to rebel against the goings-on and has already had talks with the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership in Goa, with a possible switchover in mind.
“We want the party to field new faces for the elections. If the party continues to be in the grip of the old leaders, we will be wiped out,” Madkaikar said. When asked, if he would quit the party if his demand was not met, he said: “I will be left with no option”.
Valpoi MlA Vishwajit Rane, son of Pratapsingh Rane, who has been vocal about his criticism of state Congress president luizinho Faleiro now says that he has turned himself away from the bickerings within the party and will concentrate only the two constituencies represented by him and his father, Valpoi and Poriem respectively.
“I have nothing to say about the rest of the issues. My concern is only these two constituencies. let the others handle the rest,” he told The Pioneer.
Faleiro on the other hand, claims that the party High Command is with him and that during a recent meeting with Gandhi, which several party MlAs chose to skip, the signal from the party vice president was unambiguous.
“Rahul ji has told us only one thing. Perform or perish. This is his message to us. All MlAs should keep this in mind and work collectively to defeat the BJP,” Faleiro said.