Pawar spoils Churchill’s Christmas, No Entry in NCP
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 25 December 2015 13:31 IST
Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar has spoiled Christmas of Goa’s political heavyweight Churchill Alemao. The doors of NCP are shut down for him.
Lokmat, the media house of chain newspapers in Maharashtra and Goa, has quoted Pawar in this regard.
Pawar has told Lokmat that Churchill had met him with a request to give him entry in the NCP.
“No official decision has been taken yet. But I am personally not in favour. He has spoiled his reputation”, Pawar reported to have said.
Churchill, who was a ‘force’ wanted by every politician or a party, has today become an untouchable in Salcete.
The two-time former MP had left Congress once again in 2014 Lok Sabha election, to contest as a Trinamool Congress candidate.
While giving almost 30% votes to Congress candidate Alex Reginald Lourenco, the South Goa voter had pushed Churchill down to mere 2% - hardly 12,000 votes out of four lakh voters.
Prior to that, the real anti-Family Raj rage was seen only against Alemaos in the 2012 Assembly election.
Three Congress candidates – Churchill in Navelim, Joaquim in Cuncolim and Churchill’s daughter Valanka in Benaulim – as well as Yuri in Sanguem on NCP ticket were all defeated by the Goan voter.
The Family Raj otherwise prevailed, with 2012 Assembly election electing Rane father and son duo, Monseratte husband and wife couple as well as Dhawalikar brothers.
The only politicians who have been completely marginalised today are Churchill and his daughter Valanka, who was suspended as Youth Congress president for supporting her father in the Lok Sabha poll.
Besides his muscle-man image since 1987, the image as the most corrupt politician in the last term as the PWD minister, with ‘value’ addition by ‘collector’ Valanka, was a major backlash he faced.
The only ‘blessing in disguise’ for him was the recent Louis Berger bribery case, where a sympathy wave was created in his favour by getting jailed for over two months while his alleged co-conspirator and former CM Digambar Kamat is still moving out freely.
But still, say sources in the Congress, there is no ‘home coming’ possible for Churchill now, once again.
In fact the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee, after Luizinho Faleiro has taken over, has passed an official resolution that he will not be readmitted as a ‘disciplined soldier’ of the party.
Perhaps this is the reason the 66-year old political heavyweight of Salcete was trying his luck in the NCP, but could not succeed in spite of his close friend Jose Philip D’Souza heading the party in Goa.
On the other hand, his ‘comrade in arms’ Vijai Sardesai also has reportedly decided to keep the whole Alemao clan at arm’s length as his proposed regional party needs to win over the voters even in the New Conquests.
It needs to be seen what manipulative tricks Churchill plays now to strike back and make his presence felt in the 2017 Assembly election, for his rejuvenation.
Churchil has dug his own grave by resorting to corrupt practices while in government and irresponsible political practices when he's out of power. So people of South Goa no longer support him or find him worthy of being voted.