Panaji, Dec 4 (IANS) Goa’s lone Nationalist Congress Party legislator Churchill Alemao, here on Wednesday, threatened to quit the NCP if it aligned with the Shiv Sena and the Goa Forward, a regional outfit.
Alemao, a former Chief Minister, however, said he would be comfortable with an NCP-Congress alliance. He also praised Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for carrying out “good development” works.
Alemao’s remark comes days after Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said his party, upbeat after forming government with the NCP and the Congress in Maharashtra, was keen on forming an anti-BJP alliance in Goa, along with the Goa Forward party.
“I am not interested in the Sena and the Goa Forward. I will quit the NCP, if the need be. But if there is an NCP-Congress alliance I will be there,” Alemao said.
Alemao also said Sawant was carrying out “good development” works and therefore he was providing outside support to the BJP-led coalition government in Goa.
In 2017, the NCP had issued a show-cause notice to Alemao after he supported the BJP-led coalition government then led by late Manohar Parrikar.
Alemao said while the Sena had no presence in Goa, the Goa Foward was involved with fish traders, who used formalin to preserve fish, a staple diet in Goa.
Formalin use in fish had stirred a controversy last year even as leaders of the Goa Forward party, which was then in alliance with the ruling BJP, was accused of siding with fish traders accused of using formalin, a carcinogenic agent.
Politics in Goa has heated up ever since Sena’s Raut made the overture last week. The BJP has dismissed Raut’s claims of forming a non-BJP alliance, claiming the Sena didn’t have any clout in Goa.
–IANS
maya/pcj