Wary of defections Congress to make its candidates take ‘loyalty pledge’ in presence of Rahul Gandhi

In July 2019, Ten Congress MLAs had switched sides overnight to join the BJP

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Mumbai: Mindful and equally wary of what had happened in July 2019 when 10 of its legislators had defected and held Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government, the Congress taking no chances this time will be making all its Congress candidates take a ‘loyalty pledge’ in front of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Goa on February 2.  

Earlier this month, all 37 Congress candidates had already taken a similar pledge at temple’s, dargahs and a church, vowing not to defect to other parties in the event they get elected to the Goa Assembly on March 10. The voting for the 40 member Goa assembly is to take place on February 14.

Commenting upon the loyalty pledge Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) chief Girish Chodankar, remarked, “While our candidates had taken a pledge earlier, it was meant to be a ‘community commitment’ that they will not switch parties after winning. This time (February 2), they will be taking a ‘loyalty pledge’ properly in the presence of Rahul Gandhi and will be visiting a temple, a mosque and a church.”

Rahul Gandhi, who will be releasing the Congress’ manifesto on Wednesday, will also be addressing a public meeting at Sanquelim (or Sakhali), which is located in BJP leader and Goa Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant’s assembly constituency.

Despite the Congress emerging as the single-largest party with 17 MLAs after the 2017 Assembly election, the party failed to seize the initiative to form the government. The BJP which had secured just 13 seats managed to cobble up an alliance with smaller regional parties like the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and staked the claim to form the government. 

This setback was followed by a major blow in 2019 when 10 Congress MLAs had overnight defected to join the BJP. Currently the strength of the Congress has come down to just two MLAs with former Chief Ministers Pratapsingh Rane and Digambar Kamat being the only two MLAs left to represent the Congress. 

Meanwhile, speaking to newspersons in Panaji, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congressman Prithviraj Chavan lashed out at the BJP for misusing central agencies and using money power to engineer defections among other parties, especially the Congress. 

The senior Congress leader remarked, “We all know what happened after the 2017 election… The BJP has been abusing the central machinery by unleashing the central agencies, indulging in blackmail and raids to break the opposition parties… We appeal to the people of Goa to give the Congress a clear majority and we are confident we will win over 21 seats this time.” 

Prithviraj Chavan further accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led regime of systematically attempting to stifle the media in the country and causing a ‘media blackout’ of Congress leaders. 

He further quipped, “The media in the country today is completely controlled. There is a ‘raid-Raj’ against the media… If the Congress tries to speak something, the media will black it out on directions of the Central government. When Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi try to say something, it is blacked out…. People ask why is there no Congress party on the television? How is it possible when the Centre is managing everything?”