Girish Chodankar quits as Goa Congress chief

Move comes after party’s defeat in Assembly election 

Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) chief Girish Chodankar has tendered his resignation from the post, accepting “full responsibility” for the crushing defeat of the Congress in the recently concluded Goa Assembly election.

All-India Congress Committee (AICC) desk in-charge for Goa Dinesh Gundu Rao confirmed the development. Party sources said the high command is likely to accept Mr. Chodankar’s resignation.

The names of Aleixo Sequeira and Sankalp Amonkar, the newly elected MLAs of Nuvem and Mormugao constituencies, are doing the rounds as front-runners for the post of GPCC chief.

“I take full responsibility for the results,” Mr. Chodankar had said soon after the results, even going so far as to say the party could remove him from the post of Goa Congress chief.

This is not the first time that Mr. Chodankar has tendered his resignation: he had resigned after the Congress’s unsatisfactory performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, in which he was trounced by the BJP’s Shripad Naik in the North Goa parliamentary seat, and then again in December 2020 after his party’s dismal performance in the local body polls.

A number of leaders within the Goa Congress had long been miffed with Mr. Chodankar’s leadership even before the Assembly poll, with MP Fransisco Sardinha and ex-Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco calling for his removal as GPCC chief.

Speculation was rife in August last year that the Congress top brass would replace him ahead of the crucial 2022 Assembly election.