Party supporters fret as Congress delays list of nominees

PANAJI: As Congress continues to dilly-dally, and repeatedly defer the announcement of the list of its candidates for the upcoming general elections and three by-elections, party workers are beginning to get nervous. While the Election Commission of India announced the elections dates on March 10, the Congress has lost precious days for campaigning, says party functionaries.


Initially, the Congress was slated to declare the candidates for the bypolls and two Lok Sabha seats on March 19, but state party president Girish Chodankar now says that the Congress Central Election Committee will meet on Friday to finalise the names.

TOI spoke to some of the probable candidates, and they all said that campaigning is easier if voters know who the candidate is.

“Party supporters expect the candidates to be declared as early as possible,” said chairman of the Congress campaign committee for Goa

Digambar Kamat

. “The constituencies are quite large and it takes time to cover every part.”

The Congress plans to formally launch the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections with a cycle rally, which is being called ‘Chalo Ganv Chalen’, from Aldona on Sunday. Around 30-50 Congress workers will cycle through villages with the aim of covering at least three constituencies each day. “It is a unique way of campaigning where the connect becomes easier and the visibility for the party is also better,” said Chodankar, who himself is in the race for Lok Sabha seats with his name doing the rounds for both the North Goa and South Goa constituency.

As per Election Commission guidelines, campaigning has to end 48 hours before the elections are held on April 23, which means that the Congress barely has 30 days to convince voters. Kamat said that in order to save time, the party has told all the probable candidates to begin campaigning in the name of the party without making any promises about the candidate.