ET Analysis: Rahul Gandhi’s 'Generals' struggle in Goa quicksand

NEW DELHI: Even as the BJP central leadership started the process of engineering defections from the Congress, the lack of political skills and experience of those deployed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi to manage the party affairs in Goa have been exposed.

The three ‘Generals’ Rahul Gandhi chose to manage the Congress’ Goan affairs — PCC president Girish Chodankar, AICC in-charge Chella Kumar and CLP leader Chandrakant Kavlekar — have become the prototype of Gandhi’s new line of leadership which has replaced the party’s entrenched establishment in many states.

While the young Team Goa theoretically fits in with Gandhi’s task of heralding the transition in the Congress, party circles say they do not measure up to handle tricky situations in Goa’s power politics.


While Chodankar, Kumar and Kavlekar are relatively young and energetic and make the right noises, they have failed to woo unhappy allies of the BJP and faltered before the far more experienced BJP team.

The fact that majority of Congress MLAs were much senior and experienced in Goan-style operations than the three Congress generals also became a hurdle for Gandhi’s generals. To make thing worse, the MLAs include former chief ministers Pratpsinh Rane, Ravi Naik, Luizinho Faleiro and Digambar Kamat.

“Given that our PCC and CLP leader and AICC in-charge lack leadership stature, it was impossible for them to be taken seriously by Goan Congress leaders, especially on unifying various internal factions,” said a party leader from the state. Two Congress MLAs who resigned on Tuesday alleged the party leadership was even unable to bring clarity on the leader who would lead an alternative regime.

Once Parrikar’s health deteriorated and he was out of action, smaller parties and Independent MLAs backing the BJP started bargaining with its leadership even while simultaneously expressing interest in working with the Congress.

But a Congress insider said that his party was found lacking in seizing the opportunity as the people in charge were greenhorns who could not negotiate on the modalities of an alternative coalition and Gandhi failed to authorize any senior AICC functionary to step in.

On the other side, the BJP managers tapped the ‘leadership vacuum’ in Congress to engineer defections of Congress MLAs and neutralised possible trouble from allies.

They also made a contingency plan for managing the assembly in Parrikar’s absence. After two resignations, the Congress is now worried about more defections as the BJP tries to keep its regime for the full term.