Girish-Reginald front-runners for GPCC post
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 04 July 2013 23:26 IST
Rahul Gandhi’s blue eyed boy AICC secretary Girish Chodankar and Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginald Lourenco appear to be front-runner youngsters for the post of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president.
Digvijay Singh, AICC general secretary in-charge of Goa, has clearly indicated that the high command wants to replace existing GPCC chief Subhash Shirodkar with a young blood.
Shirodkar had submitted his resignation in March last year, soon after the Assembly results, where Congress faced a miserable debacle.
For the first time since it came to power in 1980 election, almost 32 years ago, Congress was pushed down to less than one fourth of the strength of the 40-member Assembly, with only nine legislators getting elected.
Congress is still a bad word considered among the masses, from which Digvijay Singh has to rebuild the party to its past glory.
He made it clear yesterday that efforts would also be made to bring back all those, who left the party but still believe in the ‘original’ ideology of the Congress laid down by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
With a herculean task ahead, Singh has decided to give a facelift to the condemned Congress, with a fresh young face heading it at organizational level.
He also made it clear at yesterday’s press conference that the priority for him is to build the party organisation and not to form an alternate government by toppling the BJP-led Manohar Parrikar government.
Highly placed sources indicated to goanews.com that the issue the central leadership debating is to give leadership to minority to regain its guaranteed base or get a Bahujan Samaj leader to counter the BJP base.
Thus the names of Chodankar and Lourenco, who are young, energetic and widely accepted.
Sources said the central leadership was also considering Vishwajeet Rane as an option, provided his father Pratapsing Rane is replaced as the CLP leader.
Earlier, it is learnt that a request was also made to AICC general secretary Luizinho Faleiro, who believed to have flatly rejected the offer.
While Lourenco is presently playing a solo in the Goa Assembly as a visible opposition, former Youth Congress president Chodankar is considered to be having a firm base among the youngsters, especially among the Youth Congress and NSUI, the students’ wing he is presently co-ordinating at national level.
Being close to Rahul Gandhi’s office, several local leaders have also believed to have suggested Chodankar’s name as the new GPCC chief.
