xaxti Masala
Silence of Valanka
Where’s Churchillbab’s ladli Valankabai? Ever since she fought her way to take over the reigns of Goa Youth Congress two months ago, nothing has been heard from the irrepressible lady from Varca. In fact, she appears more preoccupied with football than politics with the Indian football league round the corner. She has been making statements galore on the I-League and AIFF, but is maintaining self-imposed silence on politics. Her friends and foes must have certainly expected Valankabai to fire her guns at the saffron dispensation after assuming Youth Congress office. It’s unclear whether she has joined the august league of Congress leaders, including the Ranes and Shirodkars for not taking on Manoharbhai head on. A week ago, dada Churchillbab had slammed the Congress leaders for their silence against the government. It’s not known whether daughter Valankabai is also on the Varca strongman’s list of Congress leaders for not opening her mouth against the government. Since her election as Youth Congress President, Valankabai is reported to have addressed only a single press conference that too on the Goa University polls. Presently, she is busy with the ongoing camp for Youth Congress and will head to Maharashtra to attend a national meeting of the YC. Silence is golden, so goes the saying. But, in Congress politics, silence certainly raises eyebrows.
SGF in a new avatar?
Varca strongman, Churchillbab, has denied his hand behind new NGO ~ Goans for Goa (GFG). So did GFG’s executive members headed by Kennedy (not Churchillbab’s younger brother, but the Varca strongman’s blue-eyed boy from Cavelossim). Many an eyebrow has been raised in political circles with GFG’s launching. Kennedy says the GFG is apolitical, but the NGO is stuffed with many political figures, many of whom were closely associated with the now defunct Save Goa Front. Raul Pereira, who had contested on SGF ticket and who together with Kennedy fought a legal battle to scuttle Anton Gaunkar’s plans to take control of Save Goa Front are part and parcel of the GFG. That’s not all. GFG’s treasury is being manned by two personalities ~ who were not only closely associated with the former PWD Minister, but were much sought after persons, during Churchillbab’s regime. One is Prashant Naik (not the PSU fame Prashant from Canacona, but Prashant from Balli) and Churchillbab’s PA Fredrick Borges. GFG may claim that it is a sheer coincidence that the mantle of looking after the treasury has fallen on the Prashant-Fredrick duo. Kennedy claimed that GFG will sustain itself financially with membership fees collected from its members. But Kennedybab should not worry about finances with both Prashant and Fredrick around. And making the circle complete is the induction of Churchillbab’s close legal advisor Adv Mike Mehta as GFG’s honorary member. Their detractors have already started labelling GFG as Churchill Bros team, but Kennedy remains unfazed. He, however, could not come out with a convincing answer on GFG’s silence on Mopa.
Missing in action
It’s a month now since the NIT storm has hit Cuncolim, but Joaquimbab is yet to make his presence felt in the village. His trusted lieutenants battling the saffron brigade in private say they have been left to fend for themselves against the onslaught of the powers that be, with the two-time former MLA shuttling between Varca and Malaysia. Joaquimbab’s detractors suspect that the former MLA operates from his house and over the phone, but his long absence has made many a Congressman wonder over Joaquimbab’s plan to return back to Cuncolim. In private, the former Urban Development Minister says that he would return to Cuncolim after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Joaquimbab, however, may suddenly realise that his one-time trusted close aide and former Zilla Chairperson Cleofacio has started his campaign in the right earnest. He has been on the move, trying to fill the political vacuum in Cuncolim post-2012. Cleofacio’s game plan is simple. Aware that the Zilla Panchayat polls are due within a year and half and before the Assembly elections, Cleofacio is busy preparing himself with an eye on the ZP polls. The Cleofacio camp suspects that the former Cuncolim MLA may try to sabotage his chances by fielding a candidate in the ZP polls. But that has not deterred the former ZP Chairperson from going ahead with poll preparations. It appears the young Turks within the Congress in Xaxtidom seems bracing up to challenge the heavyweights over party tickets. The battle has just begun.
Waiting for his time
Flamboyant Goa Vikas Party supremo Mickkybab, sources say, has not abandoned plans over GVP’s merger with the NCP. He is likely to play his cards at the right time. Mickkybab is believed to have told his supporters that unlike in the past, when he had unveiled many a political decision with much fanfare, everything will now happen unannounced. Mickkybab knows that news of the merger plans has not gone down well with certain Congress leaders, including the Alemaos. And he suspects some of them have plans to sabotage
the move.
