By IANS,
Panaji : Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, facing allegations of being part of a Rs.25,000 crore illegal mining scam, may not be the Congress party’s chief ministerial candidate for next year’s polls, a party leader said Sunday.
Speaking to reporters at the Congress headquarters here, All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary in charge of Goa, Jagmeet Singh Brar, said Kamat may not be projected as the party’s next chief ministerial choice and the decision would be taken after the elections.
“We have not finalised any face yet,” added Brar, who assessed the party’s polls preparations during his three-day visit, which culminated Sunday.
Kamat, formerly a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator, joined the Congress during a coup in 2005 and donned the chief minister’s hat in 2007 as a consensus candidate, following internal wrangling within the Congress.
Kamat has now come under fire from the opposition as well as a section of the Congress party for presiding over a mega mining scam over the last twelve years when he was a mines minister both in the Congress and the BJP regime.
AICC secretary Sudhakar Reddy also hinted that Kamat may not be the poster boy for the forthcoming state assembly polls, which are scheduled to be held early next year.
“Congress Legislative Party (CLP) and high command will decide the person,” said Reddy, who along with Brar was in Goa to meet the party’s alliance partners the Nationalist Congress Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party.
Party sources said that the high command was looking for a new face to lead the Congress in the polls.