Congress stepping up public outreach programmes in Goa

PANAJI: Three years after its slaughter in the March 2012 assembly elections at the hands of the Goa BJP, where the Congress were reduced to a single digit nine MLAs in a House of 40, the Goa Congress seem to be re-grouping and reaching out to the people of Goa. The challenge is probably easier because the main architect of the BJP’s landslide win in Goa, Manohar Parrikar has since shifted residence to Delhi.
With two years remaining for the next assembly elections, new party president Luizinho Faleiro, who was earlier Congress in-charge of seven North-Eastern states and was deployed to Goa in October 2014 to rejuvenate the Congress here, seems to be galvanizing the party.
Faleiro has been reaching out to the people through a series of public meetings across the state in the last about three months. The Congress has held meetings stretching from the northernmost taluka of Pernem to two meetings in the southernmost taluka of Canacona. Public meetings have also been held in far flung places like Sanguem, Sattari, Sanguem and Chandor. Good attendance has been reported for Congress meetings in places like Candolim, Old Goa, Chandor and Dabolim.
There are issues galore for the Congress to slam the BJP government with. A series of promises made by the Goa BJP in their election manifesto remain, either fully or partly, unfulfilled. These include denotification of the regional plan 2021, appointment of the Lok Ayukta, resolution of the issue of medium of instruction, etc. The Congress has been harping on the BJP’s failure to curb corruption, curb drugs menace, unemployment and in Canacona, the Congress burned the notifications whereby the BJP government hiked water and electricity tariffs.
Faleiro has regularly slammed even the NDA regime as "dream merchants" who made false promises to seize power and now are resorting to hype and propaganda to fool people.
The public outreach in Goa will continue. State Congress general secretary Sunil Kawthankar said the next Congress meeting is scheduled at Terekhol village on Goa statehood day of May 30. Terekhol villagers are opposing a proposed golf course project in the village, which the BJP government is agreeable to. "We are getting very good response from the public for our meetings. Congress had few rotten eggs earlier which are now out. We will not make the same mistake again. We are bringing in new leadership and we will bounce back," Kawthankar said.