New entrants to Goa TMC disillusioned and frustrated, dependent on IPAC for even Rs 100

PANAJI: A survey conducted among the new members and entrants to the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) – by this website (news.indyatv.in) – most of them who are former members of the Indian National Congress, has revealed that the newly joined members are totally disillusioned and frustrated (but are keeping their mouths shut for the time being).

We spoke to several members, some of them former office bearers in the Goa Congress. On condition of anonymity, the new entrants to the Trinamool Congress in Goa said they are not happy joining the TMC as the party has not set up a proper committee in Goa. There is no hierarchy, no convener or no local spokesperson. Luizinho Faleiro has no position or designation as far as Goa is concerned. The IPAC (Prashant Kishore’s Indian Political Action Committee) which runs the TMC in Goa handles everything from transport to procurement of food and stationery, and a former Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) secretary-level member is dependent on the IPAC even for Rs 100, said one of the entrants from South Goa.

“We joined with the hope that the TMC would bring in a new dawn, but we are still living and working in darkness. There is no committee, no convener. The party is not run like a political party, but instead like a proprietorship firm, with the proprietor the lord and master of all he surveys. It is run by members of the IPAC who are from Bengal, Hyderabad and Bihar. Bengalis and Biharis cannot run a political setup in Goa, with elections hardly 60 days away,” said another former Congress member.

“IPAC will decide who will get a ticket, IPAC will decide how much has to be spent by a particular candidate and how, IPAC will decide who eats and who sleeps and sh**s and when. This is not at all acceptable to us,” said an angry woman youth leader who joined the TMC last month, who stated that her decision to join was a clear case of ‘from the frying pan into the fire’.

Luizinho Faleiro has no role to play in the Goa setup. He got his Rajya Sabha post (a retirement plan) and now he cares a damn for the TMC in Goa. He has taken the TMC for a ride. The party said it would contest in 40 assembly constituencies, but currently barring one (Kiran Kandolkar in Tivim) there does not seem to be any clear-cut TMC candidate. If Churchill Alemao joins the TMC, it would make it two seats or two candidates in Goa. The TMC is merely running a ‘show-biz’ on social media, trying to rope in desperate candidates from other parties who cannot get a ticket in their own party, opined another leader.

According to a political analyst, Kiran Kandolkar who switched over from the Goa Forward Party a week earlier and joined the TMC, will lose heavily in Tivim because he will face the might of the Congress and BJP together. As a member of the Goa Forward-Congress alliance, Kandolkar had a good chance of winning in Tivim and also supporting the Congress candidate in Aldona, but he dug his political grave by quitting the GFP and joining TMC. Nilkant Harlankar, the BJP candidate in Tivim will use the entire state machinery against Kandolkar, who is not likely to win with the votes split against him. The TMC as a party does not have any sizeable votes in any constituency in Goa.

The people of Goa, which initially in the month of Sept-Oct, had high expectations and hopes from the TMC have already realized that the party is just like the others “crying wolf” to get some attention.

TMC has not officially appointed any Goan spokesperson. There is no leadership in Goa. IPAC workers from Bengal and Bihar who do not know the difference between the Konkani words kabar, kitem, kitle and maagir are running the social media pages and SM handles for the Goa TMC. How can IPAC trainees who do not understand the nuances of Goan life, decide which candidate should contest where, asked another recently joined TMC leader.

Most newly joined TMC leaders belong to the third and fourth rung of leadership and need at least 3 months to campaign in any constituency if they wish to contest. If the party has not decided on its local leadership or face and hierarchy for Goa, how can it expect to contest and win elections, when there are less than 60 days left for polls, opined a former senior Congress leader who recently joined the TMC in Goa, adding that the present TMC spokesperson from Bengal, Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra (stationed in Goa) only speaks to PTI and ANI to get national coverage in New Delhi. Goans don’t read PTI and ANI reports, but are more interested in the local Youtube Konkani channel videos of Goan Reporter and Goa New Hub, he said.

Editor’s Take: The TMC has made and continues to make blunders of gigantic proportions in Goa. Wonder where it is getting the money to blow up like this? It is spreading itself very thin. It should only concentrate on 3 or 4 constituencies and make a mark there. As it goes, the TMC candidates will not be able to even save their deposits, when the state goes to polls in the next 60 to 70 days.