the goan I network
MARGAO
In a development that may give the Congress campaign a shot in the arm in the ensuing Zilla Panchayat elections, former minister Mickky Pacheco has decided to back Congress candidates in at least four Zilla Panchayat seats, including the Assembly constituencies of Benaulim and Nuvem.
While saying he has no immediate plans to join the Congress party, Mickky said he has been in touch with the Congress high command leaders, who have requested him to drum up support for the party candidates in the ZP seats of Benaulim, Colva, Nuvem and Raia.
Mickky’s decision to campaign for the Congress candidates in the four ZP seats would bring him face to face and revive old political rivalry with NCP Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao and Cong-turned-BJP Nuvem MLA Wilfred D’Sa as the four ZP seats are falling in the areas of influence of these two MLAs.
When pointed out that he has been a vocal critic of the Congress party in the past, Mickky shot back, “All people should come together to save the country. The way things are going on in the country under the present BJP leadership, there seems to be no hope for the people.”
When asked over the reaction of the local Congress leaders on his decision to support the party candidates, Mickky said, “I had discussions with the Congress high command leaders before I took the decision to support the Congress candidates. I do not know and I am not interested in knowing what the local leaders have to say.”
When pointed out that he was initially not inclined to support Congress candidate Suzie Fernandes for the Colva seat, Mickky said, “I wanted Suzie to contest as an independent since the Congress was in two minds on contesting the polls on the party banner.”
Sources say that the former minister, who had represented both Benaulim and Nuvem Assembly constituencies in his political career spanning a decade and half, will certainly lend the much-needed boost to the Congress candidates contesting the four seats of Benaulim, Colva, Nuvem and Raia.
“Colva Congress candidate Suzie Fernandes was the Sarpanch of Colva when I was the Benaulim MLA.
Similarly, Congress Benaulim candidate Royla’s father Agnelo had helped me defeat Churchill Alemao in the 2002 Assembly election,” he added.
