Nationalist Congress party (NCP) leaders on Thursday air dashed to Mumbai to call on the party's all powerful general secretary, Praful Patel to brief him on the Congress party’s repeated cold shoulder of the alliance proposal to jointly fight the 2017 polls for the Goa Legislative Assembly.
Patel told the NCP Goa unit president, Jose Philip D’Souza and Churchill Alemao that the party will wait till December-end for the Congress to take a call on the alliance offer before launching the poll campaign in the first week of January.
D’Souza and Alemao told The Goan from Mumbai after meeting Patel that they have briefed him in detail on how the local Congress leadership has been cold shouldering the party’s proposal to stitch an alliance with the Congress party. They told Patel that the Congress party leadership appears averse in stitching a tie-up with the NCP in the coming election.
“Praful Patel told us that the issue of alliance is being pursued with the national leaders of the Congress party. He said the NCP should give the Congress time till December-end to decide on the issue of alliance before taking a final call,” Jose Philip said.
Replying to a question, the NCP president pointed out that that the NCP will have no option but to kick-start the party campaign for the Goa poll in January.
“We have been waiting for the Congress party for far too long to take a call. Till date, we have not received any communique from the Congress leadership,” Jose Philip told The Goan.
He said that though the NCP has staked claim for seven seats, the party would field around 30-35 seats in the event there’s no alliance with the Congress.
Churchill said the delegation told Praful Patel that time is running out with Assembly election just around two months away and that the NCP leadership should take a call on the question of alliance. “If the Congress is not keen in stitching an alliance with the NCP, then we would go it alone. Praful Patel has told us to wait till the month-end to allow the Congress take a decision before the party takes a final call," Churchill said.
The NCP had staked claim for seven seats, including the seats of Vasco for Jose Philip D’Souza, Churchill Alemao (Benaulim), Vincent Rodrigues (Nuvem) and Nelly Rodrigeus (Cortalim). The NCP leaders are apparently worried that the local Congress leaders led by GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro may leave them high and dry since there’s still no communication from the Congress leadership on the alliance proposal.
A couple of days ago, Jose Philip D’Souza along with other leaders had called on the GPCC president at his residence to know more about the alliance proposal, only to be told by Faleiro that the party high command will take the final call on the issue.
Will not return to Cong: Churchill
THE GOAN NETWORK
Nationalist Congress party leader former PWD Minister, Churchill Alemao has denied reports that he would return to the Congress and contest the ensuing election from Benaulim on the 'Hand' symbol.
NCP president, Jose Philip D’Souza also exuded confidence that Churchill would not leave NCP and would contest the election on the party banner.
When The Goan called up Churchill to shed light on late night reports that he may go back to the Congress in the event the party offers him the Benaulim ticket, the Varca strongman asserted that there’s no question of going back into the Congress fold.
“I had been knocking on the doors of the Congress party to return into the party fold, but they did not respond to my proposal. I am now in the NCP and will contest the coming election on the NCP banner,” Churchill said.
Jose Philip pointed out that the party is confident that Churchill will not go back to the Congress and will contest the ensuing election on the party banner.
