TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: He threw his hat in the electoral ring in protest against the denial of ticket to sitting MP Francisco Sardinha and daughter Valanka.
Trinamool Congress candidate Churchill Alemao is pitted against the two mainstream political parties, the BJP and the Congress as he is eyeing to make his presence in the Lok Sabha for the third time in his 30-year-old political career.
Seaman turned politician, Trinamool Congress candidate Churchill Alemao is no stranger to South Goa Parliamentary constituency having twice represented the people in the Lok Sabha in 1996 and 2004. Incidentally, he had resigned from the membership of the Lok Sabha in 2006 and later formed a regional party, Save Goa Front.
Sixty-four-year old Churchill had started his political career in the mid-80’s after he quit his job as a seafarer, when he unsuccessfully contested his first Assembly election in 1984. Till then, Churchill was known to the soccer crazy people as the promoter of football. But, the big moment came for him when he made a mark in the famous Konkani language agitation demanding recognition for Konkani as the state’s official status. That was the turning point in his political career as he made it to the Legislative Assembly for the first time in the 1989 polls under the Congress banner.
A four-time MLA, Churchill faced the greatest setback in his career when his entire family suffered a rout in the 2012 Assembly poll. At a time when it was perceived that he was lying low since the last two years, Churchill has surprised many when he embraced the Trinamool Congress to contest the April 12 Lok Sabha poll from South Goa. Whether his move will help improve his sagging political fortunes remains unclear, but his presence in the fray had given an added dimension to the election campaign.
