PANAJI: Stung by the zilla panchayat results, Congress admitted it had failed to convince voters but vowed to “rise up again” ahead of the state assembly elections in 2022.
“We never leave our fighting spirit. Congress has seen similar setbacks before and emerged victorious several times. We have a lot to learn from the results,” said state party president Girish Chodankar.
Chodankar attributed the party’s loss to the perception that Congress’ elected representatives will defect to BJP. Twelve of its candidates, elected in 2017, have already deserted the party, leaving them with just five MLAs in the state legislative assembly.
“We failed to weed out this perception from people’s mind. Voters expressed anger by dissent and did not come out to vote for us. We respect their dissent and vow to change.
“The party will undertake vigorous membership drive, strengthen its grassroot level and booth level committees, which was in disarray after defections,” said Chodankar .
The GPCC president also accused BJP of using power and money to win the elections.