The upcoming 2022 state assembly polls in Goa is a battle to redeem the reputation and honour of the Congress party, which has been ravaged by defections, with as many as 13 sitting MLAs quitting the party to join the Bharatiya Janata Party since 2017, former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Saturday.
Chidambaram, who is the All India Congress Committee's senior observer in charge of strategising for the Goa polls scheduled to be held in early 2022, also said that the Congress would put the "shameful chapter" of defections behind this time around.
"Our challenge is to redeem the reputation and honour of the Congress party. I know that Congress workers have been totally loyal to the party. Every time you elected a Congress candidate as the MLA," Chidambaram said, adding that while the Congress workers were loyal to the Congress ideology, its leaders had betrayed the faith placed in them by the workers and the party.
"I was shocked to learn that a defector was given the ticket not once, not twice, but thrice. That is a shameful chapter of Congress history. I have come here to assure you that the shameful chapter is closed. Never again will we repeat that shameful chapter," the former Union Finance Minister also said.
"I promise you on behalf of the leadership of the Congress party that that shameful chapter will never never be repeated again in Goa," he also said.
Chidambaram said that as part of the candidate selection strategy for the 2022 state assembly polls, the Congress would only offer tickets to candidates finalised by the party workers at the block level, while also specifying four key criteria for the selection of candidates.
"We will select a candidate only among names selected by you. You have to select names based on loyalty, integrity, acceptability among the workers and number four is winnability among the larger electorate," he said.