the goan I network
PANAJI
Three days after NCP convenor Digambar Shirodkar announced that Sanjay Barde would contest the Mapusa by-poll on the NCP ticket, NCP president Jose Philip D’Souza and lone MLA Churchill MLA claimed that they had not been kept in the loop about the same, and that they would speak to Barde about this.
Addressing a press conference in a city hotel, D’Souza asked, “Did the announcement come from me?” and added that the party had not yet announced by-poll candidates in any of the three constituencies going for elections on April 23. “The candidate declared in Mapusa was different from the candidate the party had decided,” he said.
“No one is bigger than the party and we will not declare our strategy until and unless we get the word from the party high command i.e. Sharad Pawar and Praful Patil,” he insisted.
Alemao also said that though the party had “candidates in every constituency (going to polls) who could win the seats for the party”, the party had not announced these candidates as they “didn’t want to split the votes.”
Barde had on Monday itself said that the NCP had a “master plan” for Mapusa and had appealed to the people to give him a chance.
Meanwhile, Alemao and D’Souza gave an indirect invitation to the Congress to reach out to them for the forthcoming by-polls and general elections. “We are a strong national party. But as of now we’re not campaigning for anyone as we don’t have a formal alliance with anyone. Don’t underestimate the NCP,” said D’Souza, giving a hint to the Congress, while Alemao too said that it “had not been a joke” for them to build up the party in Goa.
The Benaulim MLA also hit out at defectors from the Congress saying, “Show me one Congress leader other than Shantaram Naik who has not jumped parties.”
NOT IN SYNC
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) convenor Digambar Shirodkar announced that Sanjay Barde would contest the Mapusa by-poll on the NCP ticket
However, NCP state unit president Jose Philip D’Souza and lone MLA Churchill MLA claimed that they had not been informed Shirodkar’s decision to nominate Barde
Alemao and D’Souza gave an indirect invitation to the Congress to reach out to them for the forthcoming by-polls and general elections
