PANJIM: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA from Benaulim Churchill ALemao and his daughter Valanka Alemao held a meeting in Mumbai with NCP chief Sharad Pawar and General Secretary Praful Patel. The duo said that the meeting was to discuss the possibility of an alliance between NCP and Congress for the upcoming State Assembly election. They added that Prafulla Hede from Goa was also present for the meeting.
Reportedly, Churchill had recently stated that time was running out to formalise any pre-poll alliance plan with other political parties. He had also called for the coming together of Congress parties in the country and had added that Trinamool Congress leaders had spoken to him. He had also insisted that his daughter Valanka Alemao would contest from Navelim, even as an independent if needed and that she had already begun holding meetings with the locals there.
Earlier, when NCP Goa president Jose Philip D’souza had visited Pawar and Patel in Mumbai, he had also pushed for forming an alliance similar to the one that exists in Maharashtra with Congress and other like-minded parties.
Though Congress leader P Chidambaram had stated that Goa Congress would contest all 40 seats, D’Souza had urged other political parties to unite and not split the secular vote in their fight to topple the BJP government.
