MARGAO
The Benaulim Congress block has recommended the names of as many as five candidates for the party ticket, including former minister Mickky Pacheco.
When reports speak of NCP MLA Churchill Alemao making moves to quit the NCP and chart out a new political course on Sunday, Congress went into a poll gear in coastal Benaulim.
Party leaders on Sunday convened the postponed meeting of the Benaulim block scheduled on Monday morning to facilitate the workers to recommend names of candidates for the party ticket to contest the 2022 polls.
The turnout of workers was termed as moderate at a meeting attended by Congress observers drafted to oversee the poll exercise. Flamboyant Mickky Pacheco, who had joined the Congress over two months ago, was prominently seen around at the meeting venue.
At the end of the meeting, the Benaulim block recommended the names of as many as five candidates for the party ticket. They include former minister Mickky Pacheco, former Benaulim sarpanch Royla Fernandes, activist Gina Pereira, social worker Trevor Fernandes and former Benaulim block Congress president Edwin Barretto, who incidentally was the Congress candidate against Churchill in the 2017 Assembly election.
NCP MLA Churchill Alemao’s future political plan had an echo at the Benaulim block Congress meeting, with party workers and leaders saying that Churchill’s exit from NCP will help Congress contest the ensuing polls on the party banner.
“We have been under the impression that the Congress may concede the Benaulim seat to the NCP in the event of a Congress-NCP tie-up. But, with Churchill showing clear signs of moving out of the NCP, we are confident that Congress will now field a candidate from Benaulim”, remarked a worker.
