MARGAO: Is Valanka Alemao, one of the Congress ticket aspirants for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, paying the price of being Churchill Alemao’s daughter?
The buzz is that with Churchill in the NCP, the work done by Valanka for the party has been overlooked.
But, Valanka states that the Congress ideology fits her and she will never leave the Congress even though her father has quit the party and admits that she and her father very often argue over her attachment to the Congress. “I was a duly elected Youth Congress president in 2013 and despite doing so much for the younger generation, was summarily suspended only because my father had joined another political party,” Valanka said while disclosing that she had earlier offered to resign from the post due to the same reason.
However, she succeeded in getting the NSUI to take control of the Goa University Students Council for the first time in 2014 and had brought in dynamic youth members, including Hasiba Amin, who is today in Delhi looking after Youth Congress at national level,
Digvijay Singh, who was looking after Goa desk, had asked her not to resign and she canvassed for the Congress candidates in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai and stayed away from Goa. However, even though she stayed away from Goa for 45 days, as asked by the party, she was unceremoniously suspended as the Youth Congress president for the second time, as in 2011, she was suspended from contesting for Youth Congress president post on grounds that she was using state machinery.
“I am not bothered about these incidents because I sincerely believe in the Congress ideology and love working for the party and that is what I have been doing all these years,” she said.
Valanka claims she has worked dedicatedly for the party compared to some other aspirants, some of whom have a history of party hopping and some who have no record of any social work.
A Congress candidate in Benaulim in 2012, Valanka has also served as GPCC general secretary and spokesperson in 2009.
The question marks over Valanka’s application for the Congress ticket is ironic, as after she joined Congress in 2004, she almost got the ticket in 2007 but did not take it as she had thought she was not yet prepared to take up politics full time and wanted to work at the grassroots level.
