By Marcellus D’Souza
Apr 11: Amit Patkar took over as Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) today along with Yuri Alemao MLA as the working president of the GPCC and the two district presidents -- the unassuming Viren Shirodkar in charge of North Goa; while the highest member-maker for Congress Savio D’Silva who lost narrowly to AAP’s Cruz Silva in Velim in South Goa was appointed District President (South).
Goa State in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao, attended the induction ceremony along with Opposition Leader, Michael Lobo, former chief minister and MLA from Margao Digambar Kamat and South Goa MP, Francisco Sardinha amongst others.
The team headed by Amit Patkar is billed by the Congress as a “re-invention of sorts” with Chidambaram terming it as a "generational shift" in the party's Goa unit.
Amit Patkar lost the Curchorem seat to Nilesh Cabral of the BJP. Amit Patkar is a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering graduate. According to the election affidavit filed with the Election Commission, he has no criminal cases against him. He is slated to be the youngest president of GPCC at 38-years of age. Amit Patkar is the poster boy that the Congress party always wanted. Young and restless, cold calculated he could be the youngest party President for Congress in Goa and a representative from the South of Goa and most importantly, the highest ever Political Leader in the state from the mining areas who ascends the chair at a time when the Goa government is clueless and procrastinating in restarting mining banned by BJP itself.
Amit Patkar had recently twitted comparing Nilesh Cabral to French Queen Marie Antoniette after he had asked people to buy e-vehicles instead of complaining about rising fuel process.
Goa BJP’s President Sadanand Shet Tanavade had accused that “the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President’s job was sold”.
Yuri Alemao (37) is a commercial pilot by training and the son of Joaquim Alemao, the brother of Benaulim strongman, Churchill Alemao. He is said to be suave and soft-spoken. According to the election affidavit filed with the Election Commission, he has no criminal cases against him.
Sonia Gandhi further appointed Michael Lobo as leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in the Goa Assembly, Sankalp Amonkar as deputy CLP leader and former Attorney General Carlos Ferreira as chief whip of the CLP. Digambar Kamat, former Goa chief minister was appointed “a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) with immediate effect”. Digambar Kamat had courted controversy recently when it was rumoured that he was leaving the Congress party to join the BJP just before the Cabinet of Pramod Sawant could be expanded to take the number of ministers to 12 on Saturday.
The Congress party won 11 seats in the recently concluded state legislature elections.
Girish Chodankar, outgoing Congress president, had quit the post owning responsibility for the electoral debacle following which Congress President Sonia Gandhi, appointed the young leader Amit Patkar, as GPCC president. It was during Girish Chodankar’s tenure that Luizinho Faleiro quit the Congress and joined the TMC. Falerio had served the Congress as General Secretary since 2013 and was In-charge of the 7 North Eastern States of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura and accused the party being led by a “coterie” of leaders whose priority is personal gains. Another prominent member of the Congress was Churchill Alemao who joined the TMC after quitting the grand old party.
It may be recalled that Alexio Sequeira, had disapproved the way the party had treated former Congress MLA Reginaldo Lourenco and shunted him out from the party after he briefly joined the TMC but decided to rejoin the Congress party. Ultimately, Reginaldo Lourenco dared the Congress and stood as an Independent candidate from the Curtorim constituency winning the seat by 8960 votes or 40.12%.
Meanwhile, according to Michael Lobo, the CLP discussed the panchayat election today. MLAs were asked to put up panels for the forthcoming panchayat elections especially in those constituencies which did not have an MLA from the Congress. The CLP further discussed the General Elections of 2024 and decided to declare candidates well in advance.