MARGAO
Seasoned Congress campaigner and three-time former MP Francisco Sardinha may have to contend with a challenge of sorts from two young women -- Mahila Congress Chief Pratima Coutinho and former Youth Congress President Valanka Alemao -- for the South Goa Lok Sabha Congress ticket in the 2019 election.
While Sardinha is considered in party circles as a strong candidate for the South Goa seat as the Congress readies itself to regain the seat, which was lost to the BJP in 2014, the Mahila Congress Chief Pratima has made it unequivocally clear that she will stake her claim for the party ticket. On the other hand, sources said that Nationalist Congress Party Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao has already initiated the right moves in the Congress party to nominate daughter Valanka for the South Goa seat.
When The Goan contacted the three-time MP Sardinha to find out whether he is ready to throw his hat in the Lok Sabha election ring in 2018, he said he would go by the party leadership decision on the candidate. “If I am nominated by the Congress leadership as the party candidate, I will not shirk the responsibility and will go all out to regain the South Goa seat in the 2019 election,” Sardinha told The Goan.
When his attention was drawn to the fact that he may face a challenge of sorts from two women for the party ticket, Sardinha shot back saying any Congress member can stake claim for the party ticket. He, however, hastened to add that the party will take the decision after assessing various factors, including the winnability factor before zeroing in on the candidate.
Though Sardinha was all prepared to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the party leadership had denied the ticket to him at the last minute by nominating his bete noire and Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco, who lost the seat by a sizeable margin.
Mahila Congress Chief Pratima Coutinho makes no bones of her intention to stake claim for the ticket. “Congress President Rahul Gandhi has given an open call for the empowerment of youth and women. I have been working at the grassroots level for a long time now. As Mahila Congress president, my contribution to the party can be seen,” Pratima said, while asserting that she would certainly stake her claim for the party ticket.
Sources in the Congress party informed that NCP Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao has contacted a number of party leaders in a bid to get the Congress ticket for Valanka. Sources said that Churchill has told the Congress leaders that Valanka can win the South Goa seat.
While some of the Congress leaders have maintained that Valanka should first join the Congress party, Churchill is believed to have insisted that she had never quit the Congress though he had joined the NCP and won the 2017 Assembly election.
Apart from Sardinha, Pratima and Valanka, the name of AICC Secretary Girish Chodankar is also doing the rounds in Congress party as a probable candidate for the South Goa ticket.
