00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Defeated Cong indulges in blame game
BY HERALD REPORTER MARGAO, JULY 19 — A day after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of the BJP for election to the post of Margao Municipal Chairperson, Congress groups and leaders were involved in a blame-game on Wednesday. If defeated Congress candidate Jhonson Fernandes had blamed the rival Congress (Vijay Sardessai) group for his loss, the Sardessai group of councillors today accused former chairperson Ghanashyam Shirodkar as the architect behind blocking a serious and senior Congress candidate from heading the Margao Municipal body. This group of councillors, namely Savio Coutinho, Gonzaco Rebello, Johnny Crasto, John Gonsalves, Babita Naik and Raju Naik ridiculed Jhonson Fernandes to claim himself a Congress candidate and wondered how a person who defeated Margao Congress block President Dayanand Deulkar could be a Congress candidate for the chairperson’s post. Elaborating on the sequence of events following the dethroning of Ganashyam Shirodkar, these councillros said they had three sittings with Congress leaders, Power Minister Digambar Kamat and Urban Development Minister Joaquim Alemao in the interest of the Congress party. “All the seven councillors, besides Councillor Gurunath Laad had proposed Savio Coutinho for the hot seat, but lamented that Ganashyam Shirodkar put spokes in the wheel to obstruct the smooth functioning of the Council and instead proposed the candidature of Johnson Fernandes”, they said. Moreover, these councillors wondered what made Kamat and Alemao to suggest that both Coutinho and Johnson should file their papers for the same post, questioning why this yardstick was not followed when Shirodkar became the chairperson two months ago. Coutinho pointed out that the Congress leaders did not guide the councillors when Johnson filed his nomination papers and questioned “how does one expect to consider a councillor who all along claims to be an independent and who has walked away from a meeting hosted by the Congress leaders to be the official candidate.” They said the reigns of Margao Municipal Council has gone to the BJP on account of fielding a non-serious and non-Congress man as the candidate, adding that Johnson has no right to push the discredit earned by them on other Congress leaders, namely Luizinho Faleiro and Vijay Sardessai. “Faleiro had never involved in this Council while Sardessai spared no efforts to form a Council by bringing about unanimity among the group of seven”, the six Councillors said. oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fwd.RB _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
