MARGAO
National Congress Party (NCP) Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao on Tuesday said the party national leadership is in favour of forging an alliance with the Congress to jointly fight the 2022 election for the Goa Legislative Assembly.
He further said the party leadership comprising of party supremo Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel have told him that the NCP will stake claim for around 12 seats.
Briefing the media after returning from Delhi, Churchill along with daughter Valanka said the NCP leadership has told them they would hold discussion with their Congress counterparts to fight the 2022 electoral battle. Reminding that the NCP had offered to tie-up with the Congress in the 2017 election, Churchill said the Congress would have been in power if the Congress had accepted the NCP offer then.
“As far as Churchill is concerned, it does not really matter for me whether there’s an alliance or not. For me, people of Benaulim matter the most. Because of their support, I rose to become the Chief Minister,” he told the media.
Condemning the heinous crime committed on the two minor girls by the accused in the rape case, both Churchill and Valanka said it is the most disgusting thing to happen as they demanded stern punishment for the accused. While demanding night patrolling along the beach belt, more so during the ongoing night curfew, Churchill said he would take up the matter of night patrolling with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who also holds the Home portfolio. “When the curfew is in place, the police presence ought to have been there to ensure no violations by the people,” he added.
On the Delhi Church demolition matter, the Benaulim MLA demanded to know why was the Church not saved from demolition by the Delhi government.
Saying that he along with daughter Valanka had visited the site where the Church was demolished with the official car provided by Goa Sadan given his position as a former Chief Minister, Churchill said he had gone to Delhi to find out the facts after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejrival had told the media that he was not aware of the Church demolition.
“I want to know whether a BDO comes under the state government or not. The religious sentiments of Catholics across the world have been hurt by the demolition of the Little Flower Church in Delhi. We all should stand with the Parish Priest and the parishioners,” he said, adding that he would raise the issue on the floor of the Goa Legislative Assembly in the ensuing session.
“I have always stood by my religion and I have respected other religions. When the Da Vinci code film was to be screened in Goa, I had asked the theatre owner to stop screening the movie,” he added.
