NEW DELHI: The growing voices of dissent within Congress over the party’s almost grim spectacle in the recently concluded Bihar assembly elections It is another reflection of the crisis that plagues the big game.
the Bihar The spectacle of failure brings to light memories of the fiasco in Goa, where Congress squandered a brilliant opportunity to form government in the 2017 assembly elections despite putting on a decent spectacle.
Senior Congress Leaders such as Kapil sibal, Tariq Anwar and P Chidambaram, leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad they have joined the chorus in an attempt to show party bosses a mirror on the Bihar disaster.
Azad blamed the five-star culture of congressional leaders for the party’s losses in the elections. “Elections are not fought from five-star hotels … We cannot win until we change this culture,” he told the ANI news agency.
Speaking to timesofindia.com, a senior congressional leader said on condition of anonymity that the party was affected by the “parachute culture” in Bihar despite the fact that the former party chairman Rahul gandhi has spoken in the past of discouraging “parachute policy, parachute leaders, and parachute candidates.”
The voices against the leaders of the party in charge are not new. The then general secretary in charge of Goa Digvijaya singh He was also accused of wasting time and behaving informally, leading the party to miss a golden opportunity to form a government in the coastal state in the 2017 assembly elections.
Congress had emerged as the largest party, winning 17 of 40 seats in the assembly elections. In the hanging house, the BJP bagged 13 seats.
However, much to the chagrin of the Congressional leaders, the BJP was early in sewing an alliance and claiming at stake, thus forming the government.
Local congressional leaders alleged that Singh prevented them from claiming the formation of a government by saying that then-Governor Mridula Sinha would invite them as the party had won the maximum number of seats.
On the other hand, BJP in charge of Goa and Union minister Nitin gadkari He used his good offices to forge alliances with the party’s former allied partners, the Maharashtra Gomantak Party (MGP) and the Goa Forward Forward Party (GFP), which have three MLAs each. He also used the time to win over two independent candidates.
The then Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar was immediately relieved by the center and sent to Goa, as it was the preferred choice of the BJP and the other supporting MLAs.
While the BJP claimed to form a government, Congress wasted a golden opportunity.
Later, Singh’s role came under heavy criticism. Even the BJP tried to make fun of him.
Speaking at Rajya Sabha (as Parrikar was a member of the Upper House) on March 31, 2017, he thanked Digvijaya Singh for helping the BJP form the government. “My special thanks to the honorable member Digvijaya Singh, who was in Goa but did nothing for me to form the government,” he joked.
Singh was removed as Secretary General of Goa and Karnataka two months later, in April 2017. In Goa, he was replaced by A Chella Kumar and in Karnataka by the Secretary General of the party in charge of the KC Venugopal organization.
Later, in July 2017, the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) directly blamed Singh for the fiasco. He recounted the events of March 12, a day before the BJP stalked the demand to form a government.
The GPCC newsletter read: “Digvijaya Singh (who is in charge of Congressional affairs in Goa) recommended that Congress should not present the letter claiming his right to form the government … When the MLA of Congress met and resolved unanimously to present the complaint with the governor, Singh decided that since it was the largest party, Congress did not need to present the letter in which it claimed its complaint, but should wait for the invitation of the governor.
He further stated, “Ironically, just as Congress was closing an agreement with Goa Forward mentors on ways to extend support, GFP mentors expressed intense shock and shame to learn that at that very moment, GFP MLAs and MGP were already at the governor’s door to extend their support to the BJP government ”.
Former Goan Prime Minister Digambar Kamath opined that Congress seemed to have taken too long to make a decision.
Some local congressional legislators, including Vishwajeet Rane, Jeniffer Monserratte and Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, also blamed the party leadership for the lack of government formation.
Opening up to the media about the issue in February 2019, former Goa and MLA Congressional Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro put the responsibility for the fiasco on Singh.
“When Digvijay singh I did not allow (claim at stake), as a protest I resigned from the PCC … I refused to take the leadership of the Legislative Party Congress to become the leader of the opposition, ”he said.
Congress does not appear to have learned from the Goa debacle yet.
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