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NEW DELHI: The Congress, which is contesting the March 3 Goa Assembly elections in alliance with coalition partner Nationalist Congerss Party, on Tuesday accommodated kith and kin of three senior state ministers in its second list of seven candidates
Cabinet Minister Churchill Alemao, who is also in the fray with his minister brother Joaquim, got his lawyer daughter Valanka Alemao the Catholic-dominated Benaulim seat while another minister Babush Monserrate, who has been shifted to Santa Cruz constituency, has his activist wife Jennifer seek election from his traditional Taleigaon seat.
Home Minister Ravi Naik, who is seeking re-election from Ponda, also succeeded to get his son Ritesh contest from Marcaim on the Congress ticket. Both Assembly Speaker Pratap Sing Rane and his minister son Vishwajit Rane got the ticket in the first list of 22 out on Satuday for the 40-member Assembly elections.
An overall picture that emerges from the Congress selection of candidates is that nine of the 40 seats have gone to the families of the prominent party leaders, three of whom — Rane, Naik and Churchill Alemao — have been the chief ministers of the state.
Others figuring in the second list are Uday D Palyekar from Siolim, Pandurang Madkaikar from Cumbarjua, Dhaku Madkaiker from Pirol, and Alexio Reginaldo Lurenco from Curtorim.
Congress general secretary Oscar Fernandes released the second list, saying it has been cleared by the Central Election Committee headed by Sonia Gandhi.
