PANAJI: Former Union finance and home minister P Chidambaram arrived in Goa on Wednesday to hold talks with the state Congress leadership and take stock of the party’s preparations for the assembly elections slated for early next year.
Chidambaram, who was appointed as the senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) election observer for Goa on 9 August, met AICC desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao, AICC observers Prakash Rathod and Mansoor Khan, state party president Girish Chodankar, and leader of opposition in the Goa assembly Digambar Kamat among others.
The former finance minister, who is on a two-day visit, didn’t speak to the media. But later, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee secretary M K Shaikh said Chidambaram will meet various leaders and party functionaries. “He will interact with PCC office-bearers, frontal organisations, district and block presidents, and will take inputs to work out strategies for the forthcoming assembly elections. He is specially appointed by AICC to oversee election strategies for the Goa assembly elections,” Shaikh said.
The task ahead is arduous for the former FM as the state Congress has been weakened by the departure of most of its elected MLAs to the Bharatiya Janata Party .The party had won 17 seats in the 2017 assembly elections and also won another seat in 2019 that became vacant due to the death of former defence minister Manohar Parrikar of the BJP. But between 2017 and 2019, 13 Congress MLAs deserted the party and joined the BJP, bringing down the MLA count to just five. Of the five, four are former chief ministers and senior figures in Goa’s political circuit.
{{/usCountry}}The task ahead is arduous for the former FM as the state Congress has been weakened by the departure of most of its elected MLAs to the Bharatiya Janata Party .The party had won 17 seats in the 2017 assembly elections and also won another seat in 2019 that became vacant due to the death of former defence minister Manohar Parrikar of the BJP. But between 2017 and 2019, 13 Congress MLAs deserted the party and joined the BJP, bringing down the MLA count to just five. Of the five, four are former chief ministers and senior figures in Goa’s political circuit.
{{/usCountry}}The party also suffers from a lack of cohesion, with several leaders expressing lack of faith in state president Girish Chodankar, and the fear is this will only worsen as the elections come nearer.
This is Chidambaram’s first visit to the state after his appointment, and he is expected to help iron out differences among the party’s rank and file.
The ruling BJP has, however, said it is unfazed by the senior leader’s visit. “Somebody asked me, ‘Chidambaram has been appointed (by the Congress) for strategy. What about you all?’ I told them that even if Rahul Gandhi is sent here, it will not make any difference, because we have a Rahul Gandhi in every booth. They have only one Rahul Gandhi, we have many. All of our workers are masters at their jobs,” Goa BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said.