Congress buckles up to go it alone in Goa
After much behind-the-scenes drama over the “strategic seat adjustment” with the regional outfit Goa Forward (GF), which was right from the beginning resisted by the local Congress leadership, the Congress party on Saturday announced that it would go it alone in the February-4 Assembly elections by contesting 37 of the 40 seats. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and in-charge of the party’s Goa affairs Digvijay Singh, who was ostensibly sympathetic to the GF, led by former general secretary of Goa Congress Vijay Sardesai, finally gave in after the candidate who had filed his nomination on a Congress ticket from Fatroda in south Goa declined to withdraw his nomination. The Goa Congress was virtually divided over the issue, with Goa Congress president Luizinho Faleiro and AICC secretary Girish Chodankar wanting no strategic seat adjustment with GF. However, Mr. Singh, who is backed by former chief minister Digambar Kamat and a few others, tried for the adjustment. Mr. Singh on Saturday evening said that the seat adjustment could not work out for certain reasons and announced that of the three remaining seats, the Congress had decided to back Mr. Babush Monserrate of UGP in Panaji and independent MLA Rohan Khavety in Porvorim (both seats in north Goa). — Special Correspondent