Digvijaya should retire from politics, says former Goa Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane

Former Goa legislator Vishwajit Rane on Friday stepped up his attack on Congress general secretary Digivjaya Singh and said it’s time the veteran politician called it quits.
Vishwajit Rane had on Thursday defied the party whip and abstained from voting during the trust vote.

He later resigned from the Congress party. “Digvijaya should now take retirement from politics. The kind of blunder he along with other Congress leaders did, cost the party its government (in Goa) despite having a majority,” Rane said, a day after he quit the party.
“I don’t know whether Digvijaya really wanted to form the Congress government in Goa. Looking at his actions, it did not seem like (he did),” he said.

Rane, son of former chief minister Pratapsinh Rane, alleged that the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting which was held in the party office after winning 17 seats in the Goa assembly polls was a mere “joke”.

“The meetings continued for long and nothing was being decided. Entire day, media was outside the hotel and meetings continued. On the other hand, BJP held a video-conferencing with their leaders in Delhi and within no time, they cobbled up an alliance,” he said.

When the BJP and alliance partners gave their letters of support to Governor Mridula Sinha, the Congress woke up from its slumber and got into action, Rane added.

According to Rane, the Goa Forward Party had showed their intention to forge an alliance with the Congress and form the government, if Digambar Kamat was elected as the CLP leader.

“But the party took time to discuss on the proposal of GFP and lost out on the opportunity to form the government,” he claimed.

The three-time MLA also said he would be re-contesting from Valpoi constituency and reiterated that he was “open to all options” and even fighting on a BJP ticket.