“This time, a transparent house has been created for the opposition, however the present management has not essentially been in a position to seize that house. In a way, we needed to change the management earlier than the elections and inject freshness into the social gathering as a result of the social gathering construction was disintegrating. The issue is that folks in parliament with grassroots connections weren’t consulted,” Coutinho added.
Social gathering leaders say Chodankar is a frontrunner effectively versed in organizational constructions and is the identify of the state’s dominant Bhandari neighborhood (one other backward class), which at present has one lawmaker from the Catholic neighborhood, Billiat Fernandes, and opposition chief Yuri Alemao.
However what would not sit effectively with many within the social gathering is the shortage of widespread session amongst Goa Congress officers and staff about who they wish to be the subsequent state president.
Goa Member of Parliament Billiat Fernandes informed ThePrint that even earlier than the brand new appointment, he had acquired a vote of no confidence. “I’m utterly unaware. I’ve not been consulted and I’ve not been trusted. I’m at present the one member of Parliament and am in fixed contact with the individuals in South Goa (in my constituency) in addition to within the north.”
Supporters of outgoing President Amit Patkar can also be upsetthey imagine he labored laborious to construct the group from scratch after Chodankar failed to stop defections.
Chodankar’s appointment triggered a wave of resignations inside the Goa Meeting. Block-level officers together with basic secretary Manisha Usgaonkar, social media committee chairperson Divyakumar and state social media coordinator Shamila Siddiqui resigned.
“he (patkar) He traveled across the state and spent his personal cash making an attempt to rebuild the group. Social gathering lawmaker Viriat Fernandes additionally personally visited houses in north and south Goa, making an attempt to get better all their properties. laborer They grew to become disillusioned and left the social gathering and joined different political events like Aam Aadmi Social gathering and Trinamool Congress earlier than the 2022 polls,” mentioned a senior social gathering official who didn’t want to be named.
Patkar camp leaders additionally spoke about how the Congress was in a position to improve its seats from 4 to 10 seats in final 12 months’s Zilla Parishad polls.
Furthermore, Chodankar’s efficiency final time as Goa Congress president was not the perfect contemplating the social gathering’s repeated defeats and defections.
AICC for Goa Manikrao Thakre defended Chodankar. “Throughout the nation, inside the Congress, we’ve given second possibilities to many leaders. Secondly, we aren’t simply trying on the chief’s work inside the state, however his work throughout the Congress equipment. Mr. Girish Chodankar has proved himself to be an ready and hard-working chief. He has successfully shared Congress energy within the Tamil Nadu authorities as effectively,” he informed ThePrint.
Thakre additional added, “Trying on the state, he’s probably the most senior chief left now as there are such a lot of defectors from the social gathering. We additionally have to ship a powerful message to the OBC neighborhood by trusting senior neighborhood figures to key positions within the social gathering.”
Additionally learn: Former CM Amarinder, Bahuguna, Reddy – What number of Congress defectors have fallen by the wayside within the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering?
Chodankar’s final time period as Goa Congress president
Chodankar is climbed He rose by way of the ranks within the Goa Congress and can also be recognized to be in Rahul Gandhi’s good books. The chief started his political profession in 1990 because the booth-level head of Komba in Fatorda. He was promoted to the Fatorda Block Youth Congress Committee and later assumed the place of head of the Goa Pradesh Youth Congress.
In 2011, he moved to the AICC Secretariat in Delhi and took over the reins of the Nationwide College students Union of India. In 2013, Mr. Chodankar was appointed because the AICC Secretary Basic.
4 years later, the Congress emerged as the one largest social gathering within the 2017 Goa polls, however didn’t type a authorities because the BJP cobbled collectively a motley alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Social gathering and the Goa Ahead Social gathering. The BJP has invited Protection Minister Manohar Parrikar to guide the alliance as CM. Though Mr. Parrikar needed to contest a by-poll to retain the CM put up, Mr. Chodankar garnered 32.5 per cent of the overall votes, shedding to the Goa CM by a margin of 4,803 votes and making headlines as Mr. Parrikar’s rival.
In 2018, Chodankar changed Shantaram Naik because the Goa Congress president. Over the subsequent few years, whereas Chodankar was in energy, the Congress collapsed beneath the burden of losses and defections. In the identical 12 months that he joined as Goa Congress chief, the social gathering skilled its first two defections, which later grew to become waves.
In October the identical 12 months, Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte resigned as Congress MLAs and joined the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering.
Within the 2019 Sabah state polls, the Congress, which acquired harsh evaluations nationally, gained simply one of many two Sabah seats in Goa and one of many 4 seats that had by-polls. Chodankar had then tendered his resignation as Goa Congress president. He contested the Lok Sabha polls as a candidate from North Goa however misplaced to the BJP. Nevertheless, he remained within the put up.
The next 12 months, Chodankar once more tendered his resignation because the Congress carried out poorly within the Zilla Parishad polls. The social gathering gained solely 4 of the 49 seats that went to polls, whereas the ruling BJP secured 32 seats. This time too, his resignation was not instantly accepted, and Chodankar continued to function the Goa Meeting president till simply earlier than the 2022 elections, when his social gathering gained simply 11 of the 40-seat Goa Meeting, in comparison with the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering’s 20. Chodankar resigned in March of the identical 12 months and was changed by Patkar.
Political commentator Cleofato Coutinho informed ThePrint that when the social gathering thought of change now, it didn’t have many choices as a result of it had not been in a position to generate management from inside the social gathering. “The leaders the social gathering produced have defected to different events,” he added.
Quite a bit has modified between the 2017 ballot and the 2022 ballot. The Congress, which had emerged as the one largest social gathering with 17 seats within the 2017 polls, had decreased the variety of MLA seats within the Lok Sabha to only two by 2021.
And in September 2022, after the state polls, eight of the 11 newly elected MLAs in Congress additionally defected to the BJP, leaving the social gathering with solely three elected members.
“Our downside is the one that was appointed to the put up. There have been losses and defections beneath him and he himself submitted his resignation, which was accepted by the social gathering management,” Usgaonkar, one of many leaders who resigned after Chodankar’s appointment, mentioned in a video assertion.
Thakre informed ThePrint that whereas there’s criticism of the social gathering’s determination to nominate Chodankar now, “there have been simply as many who had been complaining concerning the lackluster group even earlier than the management change.”
“We’ll win 21 seats by some means.”
Greater than a 12 months after he misplaced the state polls and misplaced the put up of Goa Congress president, Chodankar has been appointed as a everlasting invitee to the Congress Working Committee. He took over the duty of AICC for states corresponding to Sikkim, Tripura, Nagaland and Manipur, and in 2025, related duty for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Because the AICC accountable for Tamil Nadu, Chodankar led intense negotiations together with his ally the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam forward of the meeting polls in April this 12 months. When the end result stalled the Congress, the social gathering, beneath Mr. Chodankar’s management, shortly supported Mr. Vijay’s TVK and gained a slice of energy in Tamil Nadu for the primary time since 1967.
Thakre informed ThePrint that the social gathering intends to ascertain a dialogue with all those that are dissatisfied with the management change and interact them to work collectively.
Interacting with reporters in Goa on Sunday, when Chodankar took workplace, Thakre additionally mentioned he had spoken to Patkar and the latter assured him that he was not upset concerning the determination. “Amit Patkar has achieved a superb job for 4 years and we wish to thank him. However the rule of the Congress social gathering is that if the management asks for change, the social gathering staff settle for it. I spoke to Amit Patkar and he mentioned he isn’t offended with the social gathering and we’ll all work collectively.”
Chodankar, however, has set his sights on profitable 21 of the 40 seats within the Goa Meeting “by tips and tips” and nobody can be keen to depart the social gathering and be part of the BJP.
He informed reporters on Sunday that his precedence was to deal with strengthening the organizational construction and expose the alleged fraud within the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering authorities, which Chodankar mentioned had “bought Goa”, simply earlier than the sales space.
This time, the brand new Goa Congress president mentioned candidates can be declared early to permit sufficient time for advance preparations and reiterated what the social gathering has typically mentioned in Goa – there can be no tickets for defectors.
Patkar was not current when Chodankar was sworn in, however he wrote to X: “Although our positions could change, the aim of public life stays the identical: to serve… To all Congress staff throughout Goa, I wish to say this: Our mission stays the identical…”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Additionally learn: The variety of MLAs in Congress is now about half what it was in 2008. It’s on a gradual downward development.
