Goa: Congress top brass only interested in filling their own pockets: GPF

Panaji: The Goa People’s Front (GPF) – a group of Goans – who also call themselves the Friends of Congress, in a press note issued here Monday, said that the Goa Congress top brass is only interested in filling their own pockets.

“They (Congress leaders) are not interested in winning elections. The 2-3 leaders who take all the decisions in the Goa unit are only filling their own pockets in collusion with parties like the BJP,” the GPF said in its press statement.

The top leaders should stop fibbing and lying about their membership drives and other achievements. We need a complete re-haul of the top brass in the GPCC, the GPF demanded, adding that most GPCC members and representatives do not have a support base of even 50 people in their own constituency. Some leaders in the Congress are on the payroll of the BJP, the statement read.

During the 2019 by-polls in March-April 2019, the decision to give tickets to certain individuals was taken by only two or at max three people in the party. All the meetings, consultation, etc., were just a facade. Two people in the party leadership had already made up their minds as to whom should be given tickets. This is completely wrong and undemocratic, said Espy Costa from Borim near Ponda, co-convener of the GPF

“Leaders are only on paper and in reality the numbers of the new members could only run into a few hundred across the State. Genuine leaders like Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco who have a mass base and are respected by the voters are sidelined. The Goa Congress top brass must get out of their air-conditioned cars and air-conditioned offices and hit the road. There are less than six months left for the Assembly polls across the state. The top brass is used to only posing for photo-ops for the media. Goa unit of the Congress has become a press conference party,” said Nuvem-based Priyanka D’souza and secretary of the Goa People’s Front.

“We are with the party, we are with the Congress. That is why we call ourselves the Friends of Congress, but the leaders are not willing to work hard. They only want to pose for photographs and give media bytes to YouTube-based local channels. This is not organisation-building. The Congress in Goa has lost its base, its workers and its ground-level leaders, solely due to the indifference of the top brass. Only chamchas and yes-men are given posts at the PCC and even the Block Committees. The top leaders do not like those who ask questions or demand answers from the top brass,” Priyanka explained.

“Both leaders Parag Raikar of Margao and Urfan ‘Bablu’ Mulla of Gogol near Margao who defected to the BJP were close pals and personal friends of the Goa Congress Party President. How did they move to the BJP? The party president must be able to rein in the party workers. If his close friends who had a detailed and in-dept knowledge of the Congress party, including its financers and supporters defect to the BJP, then what can be expected of the others,” Shawn Nunes of Colva asked?

D’Souza said the party’s leaders are like Alice living in Wonderland.

Elections and organisation-building is not a fairy-tale, it’s a hell lot of work, but for some Congress leaders it’s just a tea party.

Why the party leadership is confident of winning the upcoming Assembly polls, D’souza has a different tale to tell.

“The party leadership is hallucinating. The Congress workers at the grass-roots as well as Congress voters are disillusioned with the party. They have lost trust and faith in the party leadership. Top leaders are only vying for the CM’s post. They must short-list 2 or 3 candidates for each constituency as MLA candidates. Each candidate must be asked to perform and prove themselves,” the GPF statement demanded.

The BJP has massive grassroots base in Goa as compared to the Congress, the GPF claimed.