Independence Day
On the eve of Independence Day, PWD Minister Churchill Alemao proclaimed his own freedom. Speaking in a function at Navelim, he categorically said that he will contest the coming Assembly election from Navelim even if the Congress denies him a ticket. At another function in Fatorda, he called upon his close comrade-in-arms, GPCC General Secretary Vijay Sardessai, to get ready to contest on two tickets – the party ticket and what he called the “people’s ticket”.
This is obviously Churchill’s new catchphrase. At both Navelim and Fatorda, the PWD Minister went on and on about the running on the “people’s ticket”, in the event the Congress denies him or any of his family members a Congress ticket.
According to Churchill, what is important in politics is the people and not the ticket: “I have no problem if someone comes to Navelim, because there is the Congress ticket and the people’s ticket. One should have two tickets if one aspires to contest the polls…” he asserted.
The immediate provocation for Churchill’s histrionics, obviously, was former Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro’s recent announcement that if Congress President Sonia Gandhi asked him, he would contest the next Assembly election, either from Navelim or Fatorda. Churchill even criticised Luizinho for claiming credit for the new direct Vasco-Nagapattinam special trains for Vailankanni pilgrims, saying they had been introduced only because of the recent completion of a broad gauge line to Nagapattinam.
This is not the first time that Churchill has threatened to leave the Congress if he does not get his demands. Months earlier, he announced that his daughter Valanka would contest the election from Benaulim, regardless of whether or not she got the Congress ticket. He reiterated this on Independence Day, when he kick-started Valanka’s election campaign by opening her office in Benaulim. Valanka too asserted that she would contest the coming Assembly polls from Benaulim with “people’s support” irrespective of the Congress party’s decision on the ticket.
There is a clear discernable pattern in Churchill’s dalliance with the Congress. A year or two before the election, he starts expressing open dissatisfaction with the party. The friction gets noticeably worse. Then, about six months before the poll, some of Churchill’s supporters get together and form a party; or identify a suitably moribund party that they can take over. About a month or so before the election, Churchill resigns from the Congress and takes leadership of this new party. He exploit the people’s dissatisfaction with the Congress to gain their sympathy. Then, after he gets elected – about a year into the new government’s term in office – he negotiates a sweetheart deal with the Congress that includes an extremely lucrative ministry for him, and merges his party into the Congress.
Churchill, of course, sees things quite differently. He said on Sunday that local party leaders had been “acting as thorns” and “forcing me to leave the party in the past”. Be that as it may, the fact is that every time he leaves the Congress, he swears before the people on everything that is holy that he will “never” return to the Congress. And, without fail, every time, he has broken his promise.
Are events now going to once more follow this familiar path? It appears that they will, unless the Congress High Command buckles at his threats and gives in to this blackmail. The point is that Churchill is now able to call the shots because he has the most lucrative portfolio in the cabinet, and expects to build a huge war chest by the time the election comes around in two years. It is for the Congress to assert itself and act now in this matter, to firmly restore party discipline. Otherwise, events will inexorably follow the pre-determined path.
