Margao: The rift between Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar and former state chief Amit Patkar deepened on Tuesday, with Patkar alleging he was excluded from the party’s political affairs committee (PAC) meeting and denied an opportunity to address booth-level agents (BLAs) at Monday’s workers’ meeting at Verna.Patkar said Chodankar should have invited him to the PAC meeting during AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge’s Goa visit.“I was not invited to the PAC meeting. Since the AICC president was visiting Goa, the Goa state president should have invited me for the meeting,” Patkar said.He said he attended the BLA meeting at the request of AICC Goa in charge and expected to address the workers. “I was there on the stage, and I had expected that I would be asked to address the workers,” he said.Patkar said the BLAs, who had worked on booth management for the past two-and-a-half years, deserved to be honoured by Kharge. He also claimed credit for introducing the BLA concept in Goa Congress, saying nearly 1,000 BLAs have since been registered with the Election Commission.In an apparent swipe at Chodankar, Patkar said Congress was not a one-person party. “If anyone tries to suppress me, I will reach out to the BLAs through other means,” he said.Chodankar rejected Patkar’s allegations, saying he had been invited to the PAC meeting and was “lying” if he claimed otherwise. He said senior party functionary MK Shaikh had invited Patkar through a mobile message and a phone call.
