TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Unfazed by the rebellion back home, Goa Pradesh Youth Congress chief Valanka Alemao air-dashed to Mumbai on Monday to campaign for sitting Congress MP Priya Dutt, even as she accused vested interests within the Congress behind the ongoing campaign to oust her from the Youth Congress President’s post by hook or by crook.
Valanka, however, said the Youth Congress leadership will take a final call on demand to remove her from the post, even she took a dig at her opponents for launching the signature campaign against her, reminding them that she was not appointed on the post with a signature campaign, but duly elected as per the Youth Congress constitution.
She threw an open challenge to her detractors in the party to prove that she had indulged in anti-party activities in the just concluded April 12 Lok Sabha poll. “I challenge them to prove that I had told anyone not to support the Congress candidate. On the contrary, I had issued clear cut instructions to the Youth Congress workers to work wholeheartedly for the party candidates”, she asserted.
Saying that she had no hidden agenda during the Lok Sabha poll, Valanka said that everything was done in an open and transparent manner.
“When I made my case before the party leadership, including AICC observer in-charge of Goa Digvijay Singh and Ahmed Patel that I cannot campaign for the Congress candidate in Goa on account of my personal reason, they accepted my stand and told me to work for the party candidates in Delhi since I was well versed with the national capital”, she said while replying to a question why she had excused herself from campaigning for the Congress candidates in Goa.
Replying to another question, Valanka said she has already drawn attention of the Indian Youth Congress leadership to the ongoing signature campaign against her leadership.
She replied in the positive when asked whether vested interests are trying to get her out from the party, saying ‘these people are out to dislodge me by hook or by crook. At the end of the day, the IYC leadership will take a call. All that I know is that you cannot dislodge an elected Youth Congress president for no reason”.
About her assignment in Mumbai, Valanka said she was told by the party leadership to fly to Mumbai to campaign for the sitting MP Priya Dutt.
“I have started my campaign in Bandra and other areas of Dutt’s constituency”, she added.
