Rane camp triumphs in Goa Cong

A third candidate Rajya Sabha MP John Fernandes withdrew from the fray at the last minute.

Sawant’s defeat is seen as a setback to the dissident camp of Wilfred D’Souza who had thrown his full weight behind her candidature.

Observers say the fierce nature of the contest confirm the fratricidal faction in the party which which cost the Congress both the Lok Sabha seats in the last elections. Even AICC observer S K Singla admitted that Goa PCC was the only one in the country to have witnessed contest for all the posts.The poll was held late in the evening after the day-long efforts by the AICC observer to work out a consensus to avoid an elections did not succeed.

While the poll saw spilling into open the factionalism, greater acrimony was injected into the process after John Fernandes complained that the PCC delegates were being coerced by one group leading to the postponement of the polls earlier slated for June 14.

Besides Naik others elected to the pradesh body were Law Minister Domnic Fernandes and Cooperation Minister Somnath Zuarkar as vice president, MLA Alex Sequeria as Treasurer. Though D’Souza camp had a setback in getting its nominees on the executive, both D’Souza himself and his loyalist Harish Zantye managed to get themselves elected for the AICC posts. For Naik it is a return to the post after a break of three years.