Panaji, Nov 27 , Facing political embarrassment over its MLAs switching sides and joining the BJP, Goa Congress on Monday decided not to consider ‘imported leaders’ for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The North Goa Congress Committee on Monday held a meeting and discussed several issues pertaining to the forthcoming polls.
After the meeting, Congress MLA Carlos Ferreira told mediapersons that they discussed strategies to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
“We have discussed strategies going ahead. There was one main demand that only loyal ‘karykartas’ should be given ticket, and not the ‘imported’ ones. We will convey this message to the party high command,” he said.
“There was also a demand that candidates’ names should be declared early. This too we will convey to our senior leadership, as all of us are of the same opinion,” he said.
Congress leader Amarnath Panajikar said, “We have passed a resolution that the candidates should be from Congress and not from other parties who wish to join us.”
Panjikar also said the BJP government has failed in Goa and at the Centre to resolve the issues facing the public.
“The BJP has failed to create employment, reduce inflation and bring back black money. The party has been exposed and we will take this to the people,” he said.
Sources said that one former MLA, presently the member of a regional party, is interested in joining the Congress provided he gets the nod to contest from North Goa.
On July 10, 2019, 10 MLAs along with Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavalekar had switched over to the BJP. Prior to that, in the same tenure (2017-22), three MLAs had resigned and joined the BJP.
On September 14 last year, eight MLAs joined the saffron party, prompting the public to criticise the Congress on social media, stating “vote to Congress means vote to BJP”.
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