GOA GOZALI

Congress yet to learn rnBy the look of things, the Congress party is one which never learns. Despite being gifted 17 seats by the state’s electorate and having to face the embarrassment of not being able to form the government, the party doesn’t seem to have learnt any lessons.

Gerard de Souza | JULY 17, 2017, 01:00 AM IST
The initial impression of the Congress party’s failure to form the government was blamed in large part on the party’s inability to elect a legislature party leader. While that is only partly true, the other part being filled by the fact that the Goa Forward ditched them, the Congress hasn’t fixed its side of the bargain yet. rWhen it came to selecting a candidate to go up against BJP’s Vinay Tendulkar in the Rajya Sabha elections the party was all at sea with even a complete unknown Suraj Lotlikar was sent out as one of the possible candidates. rThe fact that the party settled for Shantaram Naik, perhaps as a ‘consensus’ candidate, is enough indication that the party and its MLAs are yet to find any common meeting ground on issues that matter. rBut that’s not even the end of the story. After having settled for sitting MP Naik, the party rather than introspect on its failure, decided that it should all go for a grand lunch at the Goa Marriott Resort. Will things change under the newly elected GPCC leader Naik? r rPresident who has ‘lost his head?’ rNow that the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee finally has a new leader at the helm in the form of the ageing Shantaram Naik, we wish to remind you of an instance not too long ago that involved the man. r Public memory may be short, but that of politicians is not, and this instance has been brought to our notice by one such politician of the Goa Forward. rIn the run up to the elections earlier this year, a lesser known, but very senior and respected member of the Congress Moti Dessai was asked to state his position, or rather react to Shantaram Naik’s statement that secular parties in Goa should align with the Congress and form an election alliance to defeat the BJP in the 2017 state assembly elections. rThe Congress which was then led by Luizinho Faleiro and opposed to any alliance with the Goa Forward brushed aside Shantaram’s statement in a rather brash manner. r“Shantaram has lost his head. He should not be taken seriously,” was what Moti Dessai had to say. Translated in Konkani it means “to toklen suttla.” rWe wonder now does the Congress still believe that its current state president “has lost his head?” rrBeing frank enough rA brief let up in the Congress bashing for now, and let us bring before you a rather candid and frank speaking member of the state cabinet. Former deputy chief minister and current minister of urban development Francisco D’Souza. rD’Souza was asked as part of the unending news cycle about the rules that the state government would have to frame under the newly passed Real Estate Regulation Act or RERA as it is more popularly known. rNot the one to mince words or try to be devious in dropping hints, he made no bones of the fact that the state government is yet to move in the direction of getting things done. rGetting even more candid, D’Souza went on to say that worst comes to worst, “we can always copy the rules from Maharashtra, in any case we are copying everything from Maharashtra.” rRather than vilify him, we think such kind of transparency will only be good for us. Who are we kidding anyway? rrSome political churning rWith all the churning and rumours and talk that the Parrikar government is not stable and can collapse anytime, there’s one thing that the current CM will be looking forward to. Besides the fact that he already has the Governor on ‘his’ side, Parrikar will be eager to poach more Congress legislators into his camp. rWhile this is a distinct possibility and could happen no sooner he is elected, if he is, that is (Let’s not take anything for granted), Parrikar would have to vacate a cabinet berth in order to be able to sufficiently lure a Congressman into his party. rAnd while rumour has it that Congress’s Subhash Shirodkar is looking for an open window to jump sides, he isn’t going to be lured solely by the assurance that the BJP will look the other way in the cases that they could have against him. They are going to need to offer him or anybody else a cabinet berth. rBut who will make way for any potential entrants? Word has it that it would be one of the Goa Forward ministers with the axe tilting in the direction of the one who has been more in the news. The icing on the cake will be that the removal will have the sanction of party supremo Vijai Sardesai himself. rFor now, this is all speculation, and should be taken with a pinch of salt. r(With inputs from Karan Sehgal and Ashwini Kamat)
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