The onus is on Congress to unite opposition parties to take on the BJP at the ’27 polls
Expectedly, the news of a new political organisation styling itself as the ‘Goa Congress Party’ seeking to register with the Election Commission of India (ECI) has created a buzz in the state. Enquiries are being made as to who is behind the move and who will sponsor the party. Everyone knows that no political party can operate without sufficient funds to run its affairs. The timing is clear: the political party is being formed ahead of the next Assembly elections, which are crucial for both the BJP and the Congress.
The news comes in the wake of resentment among a group of Congress workers over the change in state Congress leadership. In a political party such as the Congress, this was expected, as members express their views publicly, unlike in the BJP. Open revolts and defections have been part of the Congress while it was in power. Factionalism is quite transparent in the party, which is bad for its image. The BJP also has factions, but their differences are kept within the four walls of their proverbial drawing room. As Amit Patkar was the president of the state unit of the party for nearly four years, he has his own support base. So, obviously, when he was replaced by Girish Chodankar, there was bound to be disenchantment.
If the proposed party gets registration, it could attract functionaries likely to quit the Congress under some pretext or the other. In the midst of this, Congress national general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal’s visit was, in a way, timely. His pre-decided visit was to take stock of the situation and put the party organisation in election mode. His visit is also an indication that the Congress central leadership, though belatedly, wants to give importance to Goa. If it is serious about wresting power from the BJP, there is no other option. In the short time available, the party’s top brass will have to monitor what is happening on the ground and also take a decision to bring other non-BJP parties together.
Praising Chodankar, Venugopal has virtually ruled out any leadership change in the state. For the state party president’s post, the choice was limited. If the party’s central leaders have the correct assessment, they will know that since the 2022 elections, the groundwork to fortify the party organisation, at least at the constituency level (leave alone booth level), seems minimal. There seems hardly any activity in North Goa, especially after eight of its MLAs joined the BJP in September 2022. Five were from this district. Anti-incumbency is quite high in most of the constituencies, but the question is what the Congress has done to capitalise on it. The Congress, which ruled Goa for 23 years, has been out of power for the past 15 years. One cannot forget that the Congress did not win the South Goa Lok Sabha seat on its own strength. NGOs, activists and other organisations played an important role.
If the Congress has done a lot of work in the past four years, then there is no need for it to panic at the formation of the new political party. It is worried because the party’s grass-root work has been minimal. Its focus appeared to be more on press conferences and small protests. RGP, GFP and AAP are seen working at the ground level. With the party losing 21 MLAs (one in 2017, two in 2018, 10 in 2019 and eight in 2022) through defections, the Congress will have to double its efforts to revitalise its constituency-level units. Giving up its laid-back approach, it will have to put its machinery in fast-track mode.
