Margao: Congress’s Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Goa to join the party’s Goy Rakhonn Yatra on Sunday has been cancelled, party sources confirmed. No reason was given for the cancellation.Gandhi was scheduled to arrive in the Cuncolim constituency on Sunday evening. He was to pay homage at the Chieftains’ Memorial in Cuncolim and join the yatra on the Cuncolim-Quepem stretch.State Congress president Girish Chodankar said Gandhi moved the visit up from Oct 12 after the yatra’s growing popularity. Chodankar had said the original date was called off because of the party’s ongoing SIR-related protest in Delhi.The state administration had refused permission for the yatra, saying Gandhi could not walk on the national highway. Both Alemao and Chodankar had said the party would go ahead with the programme with or without permission.Meanwhile, the flip-flop of Gandhi’s Goa visit has attracted criticism from within the party.Congress ideologue and political analyst Vishal Pai Cacode questioned the choice of Cuncolim as the venue for Gandhi’s visit. “Surprisingly, on both occasions, Cuncolim emerged as the preferred venue,” he said, asking why party leaders were “repeatedly disregarding the sentiments and emotions” of loyal workers from Margao, Navelim and Curtorim.
