TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Hours after Congress went in for experience over youth and settled for former chief minister Ravi Naik and sitting member of parliament Francisco Sardinha for the north and south Goa Lok Sabha seats respectively, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has indicated that it would go it alone this polls thus breaking its old alliance with ‘big brother’ after a meeting with party supremo, Union minister Sharad Pawar.
North Goa seat has been traditionally fought by the NCP in alliance with Congress past couple of times, but without success.
The NCP will have a formal meeting with Goa desk-in charge Union minister Prafulla Patel on Thursday morning. The NCP likely candidates are party president Nilkant Halarnkar and youth wing chief Yuri Alemao.
Congress party sources said the high command was refraining from fielding new faces at this stage going back to its old winnability criteria.
“We had new faces but the party wants experienced and winnable leaders to contest the polls this year. The young leaders may be given a chance during the next parliamentary elections,” said a Congressman.
Besides Sardinha, whose name figured first on the list for south Goa there were two others –Valanka Alemao and Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco. While Ravi Naik, Jitendra Deshdraphu and Ramakant Khalap, were shortlisted as probable candidates in the north, Khalap too had his feet in till the last.
Interestingly, Naik, during a meeting with AICC General Secretary Digvijaya Singh in Goa last month, had said that he was not contesting the election though party leaders had pushed for his candidature.
Meanwhile, earlier during the day, a delegation of three members – AICC General Secretary and Goa desk incharge Digvijaya Singh, Leader of Opposition Pratapsing Rane and Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) chief John Fernandes met the screening committee headed by Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi with a list of candidates recommended for contesting the parliamentary polls. Hours later, the three appeared before the 15-member central election committee headed by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The parliamentary board were thereafter submitted three names each from the two constituencies which met late evening to finalise two names for both the seats.
Former Congress minister Churchill Alemao, who was among three probable candidates for south Goa seat had opted to step out of the race after which his daughter Valanka was given a chance.
When contacted by Herald, Ravi Naik expressed his confidence of winning the seat.
“All the MLAs supported me to contest the polls and I am confident of a win…I will meet the people after the elections to try and solve their problems,” he said.
Meanwhile, later in the evening NCP’s Sawantwadi legislator Deepak Kaisarkar, Prafulla Hede, state NCP President Nilkant Halarnkar and chief spokesman Trajano D’Mello met Pawar in Mumbai with a list of names the local party unit has recommended for the two parliamentary seats.
