India is changing, we can’t attract Dalits, tribals with rice, wheat. Cong now needs a new course: Digvijay Singh Digvijaya Singh, reflects on why they failed to form a government in Goa and Congress leadership.
By: Express News Service | Published:March 19, 2017 12:06 am Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh with Chief of National Bureau Maneesh Chhibber at The Indian Express office . Abhinav Saha Congress leader and the party’s in-charge for Goa polls, Digvijaya Singh, reflects on why they failed to form a government in the state, says the party in power at the Centre forms the government in Goa, calls for strengthening the regional leadership and insists that only Rahul Gandhi can help build a new Congress Maneesh Chhibber: What do you think went wrong in Goa? Nothing. Let me give you a blow-by-blow account. I was made in-charge of Goa sometime in late 2013. The party was in a disarray. As far as this election goes, I as general secretary had strategised that we should have an anti-communal front. There were these two people, Babush Monserrate and Vijai Sardesai… Babush was a sitting Congress MLA, but he had walked out. Sardesai was also in the Congress earlier, he wanted to contest the 2012 election, but was denied a ticket. I touched base with him (Sardesai). I was in constant touch with Babush also, and as a strategy they said let us have a secular front, with the Congress in the lead. So, Babush, Sardesai and the NCP, were invited to discuss a pre-poll alliance. We went for the elections, we ran a very low key campaign and attacked AAP more than the BJP, because they were encroaching on our votes. We were successful in reducing the AAP to zero. Their CM candidate lost, he got only 1,400 votes, and the party was decimated. BJP came down from 24 to 13. We got 17 plus one, 18 seats. Churchill Alemao of the NCP won. I was there since the evening of March 10. We wanted to have a CLP meeting on March 11 itself at 6pm. But I don’t know what they did with the counting. It is such a small state with each constituency having no more than 25-30,000 votes. Counting only finished at 7.30 in the evening. After that there were rallies etc and the Congress MLAs could not reach the PCC office even till 9.30 pm. They called me and said we are very tired, let’s meet tomorrow. I said, fine, let’s meet tomorrow. Then, we went to meet Sardesai late in the night, sometime around 12.30 am. He was angry that my party had put up a candidate against him. But we convinced him and promised to meet all his demands. He said that my primary demand is that ‘X’ should not be the chief minister. We agreed. We returned from his place around 1.30 am, without realising that things will change again. Next day I found out that Brij Bhushan Singh, the MP from Gonda, who is the All India Wrestling Federation president, had accompanied Nitin Gadkari to Goa. Now, Vijai Sardesai is the state level wrestling federation president of Goa. So, Brij Bhushan Singh walked in after we left, and the wrestling started. He took Sardesai to Gadkari, and they were together between 4 am and 7 am. I came to know much later that this was done. I trusted him. Around 10 am the next day I started calling Rohan Khaunte and Vijai Sardesai, but there was no contact. I called his PA, security, no reaction. We called our CLP meeting at 11 and by 3.30-4 PM the exercise was over. Sardesai wanted Digambar Kamat to be the CM, so we decided to elect him. We called Digambar Kamat and told him that please make us talk to Sardesai so that we can tell him that you are our leader. He kept on calling, again no response. Then the press informed me that Sardesai was with Nitin Gadkari, since 4.30-5 pm. So then I called up Sardesai’s mentor, who said there is no question of GFP going with the BJP. Then, GFP president, Prabhakar Timble, he also said there was no question of allying with the BJP. Suddenly there was a phone call, and they said, ‘Sir sorry, they are going to the Governor’. See, my basic objection is that in Parliamentary democracy of course numbers count, but it has to be on the basis of the mandate received. Any political party if it gets the majority, they are invited to form the government. In case of a fractured mandate, the single largest party has the largest mandate. This was not followed in Goa. The Governor should have waited. By doing this she has contravened constitutional provisions. See, the letter to the Governor only goes once the leader is elected . When we called the Governor’s office we were told there is no one here today because it is a Sunday, so you leave the letter at the gate. We have also now moved a substantive motion against the Governor, which will be discussed on Monday, asking for a recall. P Vaidyanathan Iyer: Do you feel completely outsmarted by the BJP, given the pace with which they moved in Goa? The new government is fragile and I don’t think it will last. Let me give you some background. In ‘94 there was a fractured mandate in Goa. Congress was in power at the Centre, and the party formed the government in the state as well. In 1999 Congress got the majority, Congress formed the government. In 2002, there was a fractured mandate, there was a BJP government in Delhi, BJP formed the government (in Goa). In 2007, again fractured mandate, Congress was in power in Delhi, Congress formed the government. In 2012, BJP got the majority, and in 2017 again when we have a fractured mandate, BJP is in power in Delhi and they formed the government. This is history. Vandita Mishra: You pointed out the history of Goa, and said that in times of a fractured mandate in the state, the party that is in power at the Centre forms the government in the state. So what you are saying, in other words, is that the Congress has been as responsible for flouting the constitutional principles in government formation in Goa, as the BJP is being accused of now. No. What I am saying is that every time there has been a regional party which doesn’t have a mandate, we have seen that the single largest party has been given the opportunity. It has never been the case that the party with the lesser number of MLAs has got the opportunity, overlooking the rights of the single largest party..... See full text: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/digvijay-singh-congress-goa-government-elections-2017-india-is-changing-we-cant-attract-dalits-tribals-with-rice-wheat-cong-now-needs-a-new-course-4575340/