Girish Chodankar: News

The 2017 By-Election to Panaji Assembly featured BJP stalwart, the late Manohar Parrikar. On the other hand, the Congress party did not have a nominee until four days before the last date to file the nomination. Girish Chodankar, an AICC secretary from Goa then entered the fray. He did not shy away from taking the fight to Parrikar and was rewarded with 32.56% of the total votes polled. That marked the beginning of his rise in Goan politics. A post-graduate in commerce, Chodankar later completed his B.Ed. from Annamalai University in 1993. A teacher by profession, he has been one of the important names for the Indian National Congress in Goa. He was an All India Congress Committee Secretary till 2018. His performance against Parrikar despite all odds stacked against him made him an obvious candidate for leading the Indian National Congress in the state. A former President of the Youth Congress in Goa, Chodankar was appointed as the president of the party in 2018. His appointment came at a time when the Congress party was unable to grab power despite being the single largest party after the 2017 Assembly Elections.