‘Cong is the only party that can preserve uniqueness of Goa’
Ponda: Appreciating Goa’s unique culture, lush forests and unique nature of its people, former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday assured to preserve the uniqueness of Goa and claimed that Congress is the only party which can preserve the uniqueness of the state.
Chidambaram also apologised to the people for failing to take proper decisions to form the government in 2017 despite getting a majority. He said that it won’t happen again and given a majority this time, the party will form government within 5 minutes.
“India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave the free will to the people of Goa by saying that let them decide what they want and then Indira Gandhi took a decision to hold opinion poll, which saved Goa from merging into Maharashtra and thus helped Goa to preserve its uniqueness,” P Chidambaram claimed.
Chidambaram was addressing party workers at a meeting at Ponda on Sunday, which was attended by around 400 workers. Congress Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao, Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, Congress state president Girish Chodankar, MP Francisco Sardinha, Ponda leader Rajesh Verenkar and others were present on the dais.
After hour-long interaction with the party workers, Chidambaram said that for the upcoming election, Congress will prepare a people-oriented manifesto of the party, wherein issues raised by the people will be given priority.
“If people of Goa don’t want it to be a coal hub, Congress will stop it, if people of Goa don’t want three linear projects in Mollem, Congress will scrap them and if people of Goa want freedom to decide the medium of instruction for their children, Congress will let them do it,” Chidambaram said.
“Loyalty, integrity, accessibility and winability will be the four major factors based on which the party’s candidate will be finalised,” Chidambaram said. Further, Chidambaram claimed that if the Congress manages to win Goa in 2022, the party will definitely win the central elections in 2024.
MP Francisco Sardinha claimed that Congress is the only party in the country which belongs to all and serves people without discriminating against them based on their caste, religion or any other aspect.
On the occasion, Dinesh Gundu Rao informed that Congress will start Jan Lok Abhiyaan wherein the party will meet people across the state to understand what exactly they want.
Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat criticised the BJP government over several issues from increase in crime rate to the promise of 10,000 government jobs.