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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
PANAJI, MAY 28: Faced with more than 30 rebels in the Goa Assembly elections scheduled for June 4, the Congress party in the State is banking on Sonia Gandhi's charisma to return to power. Sonia Gandhi will address her first election meeting on Sunday in Goa after withdrawing her resignation as Congress president.
Congress leaders in the State are hoping to benefit from a sympathy wave following her resignation as Congress chief which was due to rebellion by Sharad Pawar and others. "People in Goa feel sympathetic towards Sonia Gandhi after her resignation... the Congress party in the State will benefit," Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Luizinho Faleiro told The Indian Express.
Sonia Gandhi will address two public meetings -- in Panaji and Margao towns -- on Sunday. She is scheduled to return home the same evening. Party sources say Congress campaigners will emphasize on the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. The party president has already eclipsed all local leaders in the propaganda materialput out by the party.
The Congress party at the Centre has turned the Goa Assembly elections into a prestige issue, with all the top party leaders campaigning in the State. AICC General Secretary Madhavrao Scindia, Margaret Alva and regional leaders from Karnataka and Maharashtra are camping in Goa. Earlier this week, the Congress party brought in film star Sunil Dutt for its public rallies in the State.
Even before sections of the Congress cast their lot with breakaway leader Sharad Pawar, infighting had been raging between top leaders of the party in Goa. Four former chief ministers of the party and one MP from the outgoing Lok Sabha are contesting the Assembly polls. In addition, members of the breakaway Goa Rajiv Congress began reuniting with the parent party on Thursday, sowing confusion in Congress ranks.
Expectedly, the rival Bharatiya Janata Party is using Sonia Gandhi's foreign nationality as an election issue in Goa. On Friday, BJP leaders, spokesman Venkiah Naidu and Civil Aviation MinisterAnanth Kumar termed Sonia's resignation from the Congress party and its reversal as a ``drama to fool the people''. Though BJP's star campaigner, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, will not canvass for the party this time round, Home Minister L K Advani, Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan and Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde will make up for it.
Congress keeps options open about defectors!
While Congress leaders condemned political defections in their election manifesto released today, partymen refused to promise that they would not break rival parties if needed to form the Government. Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Luizinho Faleiro and AICC general secretary Madhavrao Scindia evaded repeated questions by the press on this issue. With a fractured mandate in the Assembly polls a distinct possibility, popular opinion in the State is that defection dramas will commence soon after the elections results are declared.
In 1994, Pratapsinh Rane of theCongress formed the Government after eight MLAs of the regional Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party crossed over, even before taking their oaths as legislators. Subsequently, Deputy CM Wilfred D'Souza broke away from the Congress to form the Government with MGP and BJP support. His own Government was toppled three months later when his MLAs defected to the Congress. His successor Luizinho Faleiro's Government lasted 70 days.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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