Churchill Alemao, former Goa CM and currently Congress’ South Goa MP, holds the key to the outcome of the assembly elections scheduled for June 2.
PANAJI: Churchill Alemao, former Goa chief minister and currently Congress’ South Goa MP, holds the key to the outcome of the assembly elections scheduled for June 2. And that’s evident not only because former chief minister Manohar Parrikar is wooing him but also from the fact that AICC in-charge of Goa Margaret Alva is bending over backwards to please him barely three months after calling him a “joke”.
“All along the Congress leadership took me for granted. They cared a damn when I raised public issues. And now they are wooing me just because the Congress downfall is imminent,” said Churchill.
His last attempt to stay within the Congress failed this week after his meeting with Union I&B minister PR Dasmunshi. Even their shared love for football could not help. Churchill found that the Congress has more or less decided to field Education Minister Luizinho Faleiro again from Navelim assembly constituency in South Goa which the MP has been coveting.
This will be the constituency to watch out for as Churchill will lock horns with Faleiro. Churchill has no moral dilemma about helping the BJP.
As he put it to Munshi, “There’s not much difference now between the BJP and Congress in Goa, after the entry of people like Mohan Amshekhar into the Congress.”
Amshekhar went as a karsevak from Goa to Ayodhya, the day the Babri Masjid was demolished. What is notable is that the Congress has offered sanctuary to BJP MLA Babu Asgaonkar and MGP veteran Kashinath Jhalmi recently. But Churchill still has the Catholic vote base intact.
Churchill is often ridiculed because even after all these years in politics, he has not acquired any polish. But he’s been involved in every major issue, be it the six-lane expressway connecting north and south Goa or the opposition to the screening of Da Vinci Code.
But Churchill, who is expected to leave the Congress on May 9 to join the Save Goa Party has his share of detractors who say that he too is responsible for Goa’s problems.
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