While aspirants have already submitted their claim for tickets to Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), the party leaders, including chief minister Digambar Kamat have already hit the roads. "I am spending half a day in my constituency, meeting voters. In the first half of the day, I am in office to complete the works, while in the second half, I visit door to door," Kamat, who is amongst the first leader to start his campaign, said.
The party is yet to decide on its alliance with the NCP, a party that has been sharing the power with Congress.
For the March 3 assembly polls, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP has asked for 12 seats, which has apparently not been approved by the Congress high command. However, not waiting for the alliance to take place, Congress has already chalked out a poll campaign.
Mauvin Godinho, heading the campaign, said, "Nobody knows Goa better than Congress." "We have been leading the government at the Centre since Independence and in Goa since Liberation. And nobody knows, better than us, how not to commit any mistake, as we have successfully led this nation and this state for over fifty years," he said.
The Congress, however, has been facing opposition on various alleged scams and issues in the state.
Godinho said, "Nobody (from the party) will go scot-free, however senior and responsible he is."
Godinho, who was accused of lambasting his own government in the assembly, said, "There is a confident new Congress that is emerging from the time-warped notion of Congress that opposition parties have been carrying."
He said that the party high command has asked the leaders to stand up for their mistakes and own them up.
"Every mistake that has been committed would be rectified. But moreover, it is important to note that Congress has done a lot of development that would go as a poll plank for us," Godinho said.
During the 2007 Goa polls, the Congress party had failed to garner a majority. However, it came to power by forming a coalition government with the help of the NCP and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).