New Delhi: Western disturbances are causing headaches to the Congress high command, which has deployed crisis managers to curb infighting in Goa, Maharashtra and poll-bound Gujarat. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi deployed veteran Mukul Wasnik to salvage the situation in Goa, where several party lawmakers are on the verge of joining the BJP.
At the same time senior leader Mohan Prakash is in Maharashtra to probe why some of the party MLAs cross-voted in the June 20 MLC polls and remained absent during the crucial trust vote of chief minister Eknath Shinde on July 4. Wasnik’s main task is to secure the remaining 6 out of a total of 11 MLAs and broker a deal with the rebels to bring them back.
However, it is easier said than done, said old-timers, given the resources that the BJP had deployed to damage the grand old party. In 2017 too, the Congress had emerged as the single-largest party winning 17 out of a total of 40 assembly seats in Goa but lost the power game to the BJP, which had won 13 seats, but quickly enlisted the support of the smaller parties and formed a government.
The Congress had accused the BJP of “stealing” the mandate but later suffered a jolt when 10 of its lawmakers joined the saffron party. As the 2022 elections approached, former chief minister Digambar Kamat was the sole party MLA and became the face of the Congress in Goa.
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In the 2022 assembly polls, the grand old party suffered a setback and could win only 11 seats, down from 17 in 2017. Interestingly, the party had administered an oath of loyalty to all the contestants that they will not defect to the BJP if elected. However, the party has been hit by the same virus once again. The grand old party shared power in Maharashtra in 2019 as part of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government, which was recently toppled by Sena rebel Eknath Shinde with the help of the BJP.
In poll-bound Gujarat, where the party recently lost a young leader and working president Hardik Patel and MLA Ashwin Kotwal to the BJP due to infighting, Sonia Gandhi deployed as many as 26 AICC observers to monitor the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, where assembly polls will be held in five months.
Party insiders said infighting in the three western states seems to be the root cause of the present crisis. After suffering two successive defeats in the 2017 and 2022 Goa assembly elections, Congress brought in the next generation of leaders to regain the coastal state.
Amit Patkar, 36 was made the new Goa unit chief while Yuri Alemao, 46 was named the working president. Amit Patkar had replaced Girish Chodankar, who had been deployed by Rahul Gandhi to strengthen the party in the coastal state. Michael Lobo, who had joined the Congress after leaving the BJP earlier, was made the new Congress Legislature Party leader in the Goa Assembly, while Sankalp Amonkar was made his deputy and Carlos Ferreira the chief whip.
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Former chief minister Digambar Kamat was moved to a central role and made a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, which takes key decisions, but he was not satisfied. Party sources said that many of the dissenting MLAs had been upset over Lobo being made the CLP leader, while Kamat was miffed for being ignored in the new state set up though he had remained loyal to the party till the last.
Later, Lobo and Kamat conspired to engineer defections in the Goa Congress with help from the BJP. The party had sacked Lobo on Sunday and is contemplating action against Kamat besides the others but the damage has been done, said sources. In Maharashtra, said the sources, Mohan Prakash is probing the doubtful conduct of Congress lawmakers.
Party insiders said there are several MLAs, whose names are common to the list of those who cross-voted in the MLC polls as well remained absent during the trust vote. Here too, some of them are feared to have been influenced by the BJP, which recently installed Sena rebel Shinde to the CM’s chair while getting its leader Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.
Yet, said Congress insiders, the new Maharashtra cabinet was being decided from Delhi, in an indication of which party was in the driving seat. Reports of infighting in the Maharashtra unit had been regularly reaching the Congress president since the MVA government came to power but little was done to curb it, said party insiders, adding that Mohan Prakash had a difficult task at hand.
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In Gujarat, where assembly polls are due in December, both Hardik Patel and Aswin Kotwal had publicly blamed the state leaders for their exit. Though efforts were made to convince Hardik, Kotwal was left to fend for himself as AICC managers had become suspicious of his activities.
Against this backdrop, the senior leaders and ministers, who have been named as AICC observers, will have to put in a lot of effort to ensure the smooth functioning of the local teams and roll out the plans that have been devised at the central level, said the insiders.
