New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Sonia Gandhi on Monday approved several committees ahead of the Assembly polls in Goa. Girish Chodankar has been retained as the state president and former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat will continue as the Congress legislative party leader while Alexio Sequeira is the Working state President.
Former Chief Minister Luizinho Falerio has been appointed Chairman of the Election coordination committee with M.K. Sheikh as convener.
Campaign committee to be headed by Reginaldo Lourenco and Sangeetha Parab as co chairperson.
Former CM Fracisco Sardinha has been made chairman of the Finance committee and Pramod Salgaocar as co chairperson. Manifesto committee is to be headed by Ramakant Khalap and Publicity committee by Chandrakant Chodankar.
The surprise missing is Francisco Xavier Pacheco, popularly known as Mickky, who was tipped to be made the working President of the Goa Congress. Mickky was in Delhi and had formally joined the Congress.
Mickky speaking on the phone from Goa on Friday had said, "I want to settle the people in the Congress who have been with me for a long time and so I will meet the Congress leaders in Delhi soon."
Sources said that Mickky had met Kamal Nath who had been instrumental in his joining the Congress and also had met P. Chidambaram, Dinesh Gundu Rao and K.C. Venugopal in Delhi.
After the meeting of Rahul Gandhi with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and T.S. Singh Deo, it is widely expected that the state could see a minor portfolio reshuffle. Singh Deo may be given more importance in the cabinet and it's likely he may be allotted a portfolio soon. Currently he holds the health portfolio.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said he will invite Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Punjab Governor V.P. Badnore and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as guests at the special session.
Chidambaram was addressing a press conference at the fag-end of his two-day visit to the state in the capacity as the All India Congress Committee's senior observer in charge of Goa ahead of the 2022 state assembly polls.
Punjab annually generates 20 million tonnes of paddy straw and this is normally set on fire to quickly clear the fields for the next crop, resulting in choking of the National Capital Region (NCR) in October and November.
Priyanka's remarks came after farmers on Tuesday evening vacated the railway tracks and highways in Punjab after the Amarinder Singh government accepted the demands of the sugarcane farmers.
The 'rebel' legislators reached Dehradun in the morning to apprise Rawat about the mood of the public against the Amarinder Singh-led government in the state. They, among 20-odd party legislators, have been demanding replacement of Amarinder Singh as he failed to fulfill the 2017 poll promises.
