The last five years has been a time of ‘no Mickky Pacheco and no Churchill Alemao’ and family in power. Benaulim had a new face, not attached to any party, though unofficially to the Goa Vikas Party. But the MLA, Caetano (Caitu) D’Silva, has had his fair share of controversies including his citizenship as an Indian citizen being questioned.
2012 was a high profile election when Mickky Pacheco decided to shift base from Benaulim to Nuvem Constituency. Churchill tried to use the constituency to pitch his daughter Valanka into politics while Caitu himself quit his 30-year odd career of oil drilling working on riggs and was fielded by Mickky Pacheco as the Benaulim candidate.
“In the year 2012, people just wanted to vote for a change and defeat the Congress/NCP candidate, the major factor being rejecting the family raj and the Alemaos were a big factor with four members from the same family contesting polls in that election,” explains Dr Hubert Gomes recalling those elections. Dr Hubert himself contested as an independent candidate but post polls joined the BJP and became its spokesperson but after a while he fell out with the party and has stayed completely away from politics.
Sore from losing polls, Valanka, alias known as Advocate Valanka, went all out and trained her guns on Caitu challenging him on his citizenship, pulling out documents of his birth registered in Portugal. This opened a Pandora’s Box on many politicians and government servants since the Citizenship Act of India doesn’t allow a foreign citizen to contest polls or hold position in government service. This meant Caitu was less often in Benaulim and more often running from pillar to post between the High Court, Supreme Court and Prescribed Home Department Authority defending his citizenship. This likely irked his voters since he wasn’t around to listen to their grievances, while most Goans accused Valanka of being selfish and eyeing a political career, she could deny lakhs of Goans their opportunity of a Portuguese passport which comes with no repercussions currently.
“What Caitu did is wrong, and I will continue my battle till he’s disqualified even if it’s a delayed judgement. You think, Caitu and Micky would ever let me slip if I had an issue with my citizenship? What he did is a gross violation of the law,” ascertains Valanka. Valanka also is not in fray for polls in the year 2017 as she seems to be making way for her father’s comeback though the Congress seems not to be happy to give Churchill a ticket especially after he languished in jail for the JICA Watergate scam.
Hence he took the longer route and joined the Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar but Benaulkars are not averse to the clock symbol. They’ve voted Mickky before on that symbol and Churchill, who has been in seven political parties in the last 3 decades, has to get the people to remind them to vote for the clock for him.
“The cases against my citizenship are baseless and will not hold good. My tenure of being an MLA should be remembered for the development I brought in this constituency and also for eliminating corruption and blackmail across the constituency. Earlier MLAs blackmailed taxi drivers and hoteliers, cut electricity and water connections for bribes and money. All this goondagiri was clammed down completely during my time as MLA. Now I decided to go for a second term but as an independent not affiliated to Miccky or Churchill,” explains Caitu.
Caitu was once a close aide of Churchill Alemao and is even known to have funded Joaquim Alemao and also duped by the Alemao family in some trawler business. Caitu flirted with Mickky but the citizenship case saw them fallout completely. Caitu currently has no support from Mickky for the coming elections neither does Mickky want to return to Benaulim for the elections and has confirmed that he will continue to contest from Nuvem and field a candidate from Benaulim.
Caitu, who boasts of getting underground electricity cabling in Benaulim constituency, building new water reservoir tanks in the constituency, building new roads and improving water supply across Benaulim explains to us that he could do a lot and commission many projects in Benaulim only when Manohar Parrikar was in power. Caitu feels that Laxmikant Parsekar has done nothing for Benaulim but in fact supports Churchill Alemao’s return to the constituency indirectly.
“Forms for the government schemes like the Deen Dayal Yojna Scheme are available with no Salcete MLAs but these forms are distributed in Varca by Churchill Alemao,” said Caitu.
But Caitu, Churchill, Mickky have a new headache in the constituency. It’s the rise of the Aam Admi Party.
Shackowners, taxi drivers, panch members, government servants, hoteliers, boat owners, fishermen, water sports dependents, all these Benaulikars have political allegiance either to the Pachecos, Alemaos or to Caitu but now the AAP is their new option. From ZP member Maria Luiz Rebello, sister of Dr Hubert and Museum enthusiast Victor Gomes, former Benaulim sarpanch and panch Roila Fernandes, Ramola Caterers Reginaldo Silva and Shackowner Cruz Cardozo were all lobbying for the AAP ticket and were busy promoting the party across the constituency. But now Roila seems to have edged out the rest in this battle for the AAP ticket. The question now is whether the other bigwigs will continue and rally around her or not.
Another interesting angle is Anthony Pinto whose family has roots into catering, road contracts and construction. One of the many Pinto brothers, Nazario, flirted with the BJP and was a fan of Manohar Parrikar for a long time and is also a member of the BJP. Nazario, known for his wordy WhatsApp broadcasts bad mouthing Caitu on every occasion, continues this exercise but his brother Anthony has renewed his Congress primary membership and has staked claim for the Congress ticket from Benaulim. But probably he’ll have to battle it out for the same with Congress Block President Edwin Barreto.
“Luizinho Faleiro has personally assured me of the Congress ticket. Last time I was denied the ticket through great injustice only because Valanka was given the same since Churchill was a PWD Minister and he arm twisted the Congress. But now all this mess is over and Caitu was a disappointment. I have worked hard to gain the confidence of the people and the Congress has a huge chance to make a comeback, asserted Edwin, panch member and former Sarpanch for a full 5-year term of Cavelossim panchayat.
Also to watch out for is another former aide of Churchill Alemao, Maria Rebello. Well known across Benaulim, Maria also stated that she is not interested in politics since Churchill is very close to her heart and he has done a lot for her and her family. But now the heart seems to have changed and Maria wants to contest polls. But she’s keeping everyone guessing on her symbol. She may contest as an independent which allows her to be a candidate with no baggage.
Benaulim seems slowly getting set for a huge battle zone.
