TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: It’s not just Congress but its long time ally –the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has announced to go it alone for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls claiming that the ‘Congress is not qualified to stake its claims for the polls’.
Expressing its unhappiness at the current functioning of Congress party in Goa, NCP Vice President Jose Philip D’Souza said ‘NCP has a strong base in North as well as South, which makes them qualify to contest the Lok Sabha polls alone, provided there is a green signal from the party high command’.
NCP President Nilkhant Halarnkar has already left for Delhi for a meeting with party President Sharad Pawar with a demand that NCP should be allowed to contest the Lok Sabha polls alone, D’Souza told media persons on Tuesday.
“The fact is, Congress cannot go it alone without having alliance with NCP,” he added. NCP has submitted a detail report to its high command deliberating on the current political scenario.
Former cabinet Minister in the erstwhile Congress government, D’Souza alleged that Congress party has been routed by its own local leaders, due to internal revolt and by playing “dirty” politics against its own alliance partners. “During the assembly elections, last year, Congress local leaders worked against NCP in most of the constituencies,” he said.
D’Souza alleged that the Congress leaders are hand-in-gloves with ruling BJP. He said that BJP came to power as a result of Congress failure. “BJP knew the nerve of Congress and hence they played a tactic of divide and rule,” he said.
NCP demanded immediate revamp of Congress party at the local level. They said that high command needs to look into the political issues surrounding Congress in Goa and take immediate steps. NCP leaders claimed that high command need to take lesson from the recent poll results in four states, where Congress faced a humiliating defeat.
Congress local leadership had came under scanner from its own colleagues, who demanded sacking of party president Subhash Shirodkar along with CLP leader Pratapsingh Rane.
Meanwhile, NCP has organized a public meeting on December 12 at Colvale on the occasion of Sharad Pawar’s birthday. The meeting would be graced by Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare. NCP has also organized a football tournament ‘NCP Presidential Cup’ on December 15 at Chicalim.
