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Will the Congress leadership pick one of these three Congressmen or have a tie-up with NCP and Churchill Alemao for the Benaulim seat.
MARGAO
They are not new to the world of politics and are both new and young faces, perfectly fulfilling the criteria set by Goa Congress Committee President Luizinho Faleiro while staking their claim for the party ticket.
That’s not all. They all contributed their lot in one way or the other for the success of the Congress Padyatra and played perfect host to the padyatris when it wend its way through Benaulim constituency.
The three ticket aspirants for the Benaulim seat, block president Edwin Barretto, former Varca Sarpanch Anthony Pinto and three-time Benaulim Zilla Panchayat member Maria Rebello and their supporters have one question for the party bosses “ why have the party left them waiting and stranded for days now without announcing the candidate when their counterparts in other constituencies have kicked off their campaign in right earnest.
The trio have not received any communique either from the State Congress president nor from the party bosses in Delhi till date. With time running out, the trio and their supporters appeared a dejected and disillusioned lot with the party maintaining a stoic silence on their candidature or whether the party will leave Benaulim for NCP leader and former PWD Minister Churchill Alemao. “It appears to be a clear ploy by the State president and the central leadership to delay the announcement of the alliance to prevent the ticket aspirants to chalk out their future course of action. Otherwise, how can the Congress leadership simply delay the announcement of the candidate after promising to revive the party in its once stronghold," remarked a supporter of one of the ticket aspirants.
The supporter pointed out that even if the party leadership was hell bent on tie-up with NCP to accommodate Churchill’s interests, courtesy demanded that the party ought to have informed the party’s plan instead of leaving the aspirants high and dry.
What’s interesting to note is that the three aspirants had to contend with news reports over the last one week that either the Congress leadership will tie-up with Churchill as part of the Congress-NCP alliance or will field a weak candidate against the former PWD Minister. “People of Benaulim know for sure who amongst the lot are formidable and the weak. They cannot fool the people or take them for granted anymore. The Congress leadership need not take pains to know who’s the formidable candidate in the lot if they keep their ears wide open," asserted a supporter of another ticket aspirant.
