Be aggressive to ensure ruling BJP’s defeat in Goa, Rahul Gandhi directs Congress leaders

Congress had won 17 out of Goa's 40 seats in the 2017 elections. BJP won 13, but managed to come to power through alliances with regional parties.

File photo of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi | ANI |

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has directed the leaders of his party in Goa, where Assembly polls are due in February next year, to launch an aggressive campaign in the state and ensure the defeat of the ruling BJP.

Gandhi gave this direction during a meeting of party leaders, which he chaired in New Delhi on Friday, Congress’s Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao said in a statement.

Apart from Rao, party’s senior election observer for the Goa Assembly polls P Chidambaram, general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, GPCC president Girish Chodankar and Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Digambar Kamat attended the meeting.

“Our leader Rahul Gandhi wants the Congress party in Goa to fulfill the aspirations and respect the sentiments of people of Goa,” Rao said.

Gandhi asked the party leaders to launch an aggressive campaign and ensure the defeat of the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly elections, he said.

“We will take along our well-wishers, sympathisers, supporters in our Victory March towards Elections-2022. We are certain to defeat Team BJP,” Rao added.

In the 2017 Goa Assembly polls, the Congress had won the highest 17 seats in the 40-member House, restricting the BJP to 13. However, surprising the Congress, the saffron party had allied with regional parties and came to power.

Over the years, Congress’s strength in the Legislative Assembly dwindled to five after many of its MLAs switched sides and joined the ruling BJP.

Gandhi’s meeting with the party leaders took place amid indications that the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) may jump into the poll fray in the coastal state.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also gearing up for the polls. Earlier this week, the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal visited the state and announced that if voted to power, his party would ensure that 80 per cent of jobs, including in the private sector, would be reserved for local people. He also assured a monthly remuneration of Rs 5,000 to families dependent on mining and tourism industries till these sectors are normalised.