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Photo caption.
NCP president Jose Philip D’Souza addressing the media along with party vice-president George Barretto and others. Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday said the party will field party vice-president George Barretto for the Navelim constituency in the 2017 Assembly poll, with George even going to the extent of saying he would contest as an Independent if Navelim seat is allotted to the Congress in the event of an alliance.
The NCP, however, said the party high command is very much in favour of an alliance in Goa, while appealing to all like-minded people and parties to come under one banner to defeat the BJP.
Addressing the media, NCP State President Jose Philip D’Souza said he would recommend to the party high command to nominate party vice-president George Barretto for the Navelim seat.
"George has been working for the common man over the years. He has established close rapport with the people. He has been instrumental in getting elected former Congress MLAs and had worked for the success of Avertano Furtado in the 2012 election," Jose Philip said.
When the media questioned whether the NCP will claim the Navelim seat when speculations are rife that GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro might contest the election on the Congress banner, Jose Philip replied in the positive, saying the NCP will insist for the Navelim seat, irrespective whether Luizinho contests or not. “We have not yet finalised candidates, but the NCP has zeroed in around 10 seats so far, including Navelim," he said.
Addressing the media, George appealed to the people not to fall prey to rumours that he has decided not to contest the coming poll. “All I can say today is that I will contest from Navelim. If the NCP denies me the ticket, I will contest as an Independent with the support of Navelkars. There’s no question of doing a re-think," George asserted.
Asked to comment on the stand of the Congress leadership that the party is not in favour of an alliance with any other party, Jose Philip shot back, "If the Congress is saying they are not in favour of an alliance, let them say so. The NCP will go ahead and contest the coming election on its own."
