Chidambaram to take stock of Cong preparations for Goa polls next week

As part of its preparations for the 2022 Assembly elections in Goa, Congress leadership will take inputs from the party leaders and cadres to prepare a strategy to take on the BJP, which outwitted the Grand Old Party in forming a government after 2017 polls, a party functionary said on Saturday.

While former Union minister and newly-appointed AICC election observer for Goa P. Chidambaram will be on his first visit to Goa on August 25 and 26, AICC incharge of Goa Dinesh Rao will visit various blocks in the coastal state on August 23 and 24 during which he will meet the party leaders, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee vice president (Organisation) M K Sheikh said.

The next Assembly elections are due in February 2022 in Goa.

During his two-day visit, Chidambaram will meet and discuss a party strategy for the upcoming Goa polls, he said.

Chidambaram will interact with the PCC office-bearers, frontal bodies of Congress, district and block presidents and receive inputs, Sheikh said.

Sheikh said Chidambaram will visit the Congress House in Panaji on August 25 and travel to the South Goa District Office of the party for a meeting on August 26.

Newly-appointed membership facilitator Rajesh Griglani has arrived in Goa to take charge of the digital membership campaign.

In the 2017 Assembly elections in Goa, Congress won the highest 17 seats in the 40-member House restricting the BJP to 13. Surprising the Congress, the saffron party allied with regional parties and came to power under the leadership of senior leader Manohar Parrikar.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has already thrown its hat in the ring ahead of the polls, with the party's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announcing free power up to 300 units per month if his party is voted to power during his recent visit to Panaji.