Consensus eludes Congress over chief ministerial candidate in Goa

Panaji, June 7 (UNI) Consensus eludes Congress over the choice of chief ministerial candidate, with the special observers of the party high command from New Delhi initiating one-on-one interaction again this evening with the 16 legislators elected to the Goa Legislative Assembly in the June 2 hustings.

Though the CLP had authorised Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi for selecting the candidate on June 5, the observers surprisingly began consultations with the legislators on reaching here much to the surprise of the party leaders in Goa.

AICC general secretary in-charge of Goa Margaret Alva in the last two days had already solicited the opinion of the Congress legislators on the choice of the leader before leaving for Delhi to brief the party high command yesterday.

The Congress was, however, confident that the consensus may emerge this evening itself so that the CLP elected its new leader to head the government which has to be formed before the expiry of the term of the House on June 11.

The observers included senior party leader R K Dhawan, MP, and Union Power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, besides Ms Alva. They were assisted by other AICC secretaries Shantaram Naik, MP, and Siddharth Patel, among others.

This gains significance in the light of claims for and against former chief ministers -- Pratapsinh Rane and GPCC president Ravi S Naik -- now in the race for chief ministership with MGP and independent candidate and son of Mr Rane Viswajit favouring the former.

The two MGP legislators -- Ramakrishna Sudin Dhavikar and his brother Deepak Dhavlikar -- accompanied by Viswajit Rane had called on Governor S C Jamir and clarified their stand in favour of Pratapsinh Rane in the interest of a ''stable government headed by able and educated leadership.'' Mr Dhavikar was unable to swallow the ''humiliation'' he had undergone when he was stripped of his PWD portfolio and forced to rest content with insignificant Cooperation portfolio in the cabinet at the instance of Mr Ravi Naik, who had fought for his removal from the cabinet for alleged anti-Congress activities.

At the same time, Mr Rane has been the chief minister for the seventh term since 1972 and Mr Ravi Naik second term. The former hails from a landlord family with a sound educational background.

The latter with formal education had a record for fighting for Mundkar tenants rights in Goa, while hailing from the backward anti-Brahmin Bhandari Samaj.

The 3-member pre-poll NCP alliance partner, however, maintained that it had nothing to do with the choice of chief minister as it was an internal affair of the party which got the majority of seats in the hustings.

But it was keen that all the three of its legislators be included in the cabinet, besides offering deputy chief ministership and chairmanship of four of the 16 government corporations.

Another independent Anil Salgaoncar reportedly demanded that he be given the option of selecting one of the six portfolios of his choice, including the PWD, for extending support to the Congress-led coalition government.

UNI