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.
To be headed by the Chief Minister, the group will have Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Social Security Minister Aruna Chaudhary as members, along with Sidhu, the four party working presidents -- Kuljit Singh Nagra, Sukhwinder Singh Danny, Sangat Singh Gilzian and Pawan Goel, besides Pargat Singh.
After paying floral tributes to the former Prime Minister at Central Hall of Parliament, Defence Minister Singh tweeted, "Paid tributes to former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi ji on his birth anniversary at Parliament House today."
Microsoft and MAQ Software will set up their units in Noida whereas PepsiCo has started construction of its factory in Mathura, said an Industrial Department official.
Stressing that Rajiv Gandhi was a close friend, Amarinder Singh recalled that he always used ask when the day will come when people will have their own houses to live and India would be free from poverty. He, therefore, thought it apt to launch this scheme on the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, said the Chief Minister, adding that the Congress had fighting for the people for the last 130 years.
Sisodia, who is also the nodal minister for Covid management in the national capital, stated that no one can deny that Delhi grappled with an oxygen shortage during the peak of the second wave of the Covid pandemic (April-May) and several people died due to oxygen shortage.
Speaking at the meeting, Sonia Gandhi said, "Monsoon session of Parliament was a complete washout entirely due to the government's obstinate and arrogant unwillingness to discuss and debate urgent issues of public importance."
