So AICC Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao broke many a congressmen’s hearts and stated the obvious as former Goa Congress President and CM Luizinho Faleiro flew to TMC’s arms in Kolkata by stating that his party is now open for a pre-poll alliance. With this the curtains come on will they but doors open for many to walk into TMC, AAP and other’s welcome arms. The buzz is that Congress will be fighting on 20 seats with GFP (the same party that denied it power last time) getting 7 seats and NCP 7 seats and gates open for the remaining 6 seats. But central to Luizinho’s failure to form Govt last time and Girish Chodankar the current leader is a saga of weak, procrastinating leadership, opportunistic and loyalty of no productive purpose.

With Luzinho’s departure tales of how Girish and his merry bunch of young and immature leaders have been side-lining seasoned senior leaders, belittling dynamic young leaders and even promising everything from party tickets for Assembly 2022 to plum party positions is coming to the fore. From old South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha calling him weak, indecisive and conniving against party senior to young Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco accusing him of embezzling party funds to scores of aspirants to various seats stating that the incumbent GPCC President have assured them ‘ticket’, Faleiro’s departure is not a flash in the pan but curtain-raiser of a slide that threatens to continue further.

Girish’s leadership has been marked with the departure of his close associates Congress Minority Chief Urfan Mulla (who still hasn’t been replaced a year later) to BJP and Mahila President Chief Pratima Coutinho to AAP. While the Pradesh Congress Committee is filled with scores of non-functional office bearers (3 of them quit to join TMC), young Turks like former Chief Spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar, activists turned politicians like Swati Kerkar, Aashish Kamat and even notable imports like former AAP social media Chief Devsurabhee Yaduvanshi and NCP Minority Chief Nazir Khan go wasted.

Nice guy, loyalist Girish isn’t exactly the General who could lead INC Goa into Assembly 2022 and is not even a shade of Faleiro 2017.