Cong suspends two office bearers for indiscipline

Panaji: Goa Congress on Monday suspended two of its members for indiscipline after they announced their resignations through social media instead of submitting them to the party office.

The suspension of former social media coordinator Shamila Siddiqui and Manisha Usgaonkar, pending an inquiry, is part of a broader crackdown on indiscipline announced at a meeting of party office-bearers.The meeting also addressed recent remarks by GFP president Vijay Sardesai at his birthday celebration regarding past proposals for an alliance or merger with Congress. AICC Goa desk in-charge Manikrao Thakare and the party’s working presidents have been asked to engage with Sardesai to address concerns.Thakare described Sardesai as an alliance partner and said senior Congress members would be assigned to hold discussions with him on alliance-related matters.Thakare and the party’s working presidents have been asked to engage with GFP to clarify Sardesai’s comments on a possible merger.Congress committee chairman for the Media and Communication Department, Amarnath Panjikar, said the party would not tolerate indiscipline and that all office-bearers had agreed to strict action against those found violating party norms.

He said several individuals had been criticising the Congress president on social media and other platforms without following due process and that the party’s discipline committee was examining other such cases as well.At the same meeting, the party announced a series of new outreach initiatives. The first, “Jan Kranti”, will be launched in Mapusa on June 18 to mark Revolution Day, with the stated aim of protecting Goa’s “identity, culture, hills, villages, fields, forests and environment”. This will be followed by the “Goem Rakhand Yatra”, a statewide tour intended to gauge public concerns and present Congress’s proposed solutions.

A third initiative, “Congress Maand”, will involve village-level interactions focused on marginalised and economically weaker sections.