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Alemao heads back to the Congress

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

Former MP Churchill Alemao, the controversial politician from Goa, is all set to rejoin the ruling Congress party after running his United Goans Democratic Party for over over nine years.

After staging a coup in 1989 to dislodge the erstwhile Pratapsinh Rane government and form a short-lived coalition with the Opposition, he was never readmitted into the party, unlike his other colleagues. He then formed the UGDP as a strong anti-Congress platform.

"Sonia Gandhi is the right leader to lead the Congress," says Alemao to justify his comeback. He actually appears to be frustrated since his miserable defeat in the general election, and reports have it that he is in financial trouble.

As for the Congress, it appears to be a desperate attempt to woo the minorities who have shifted their allegiance to other parties. Political experts doubt if Alemao's return will subside the strong anti-Congress wave spread through the tourist state.

His readmission will also not be a smooth affair, despite Sonia's green signal. A strong group within the Pradesh Congress committee, led by its president Shantaram Naik, along with both the MPs -- Ravi Naik and Francisco Sardinha -- as well as state minister Luizinho Faleiro vehemently opposing it, on the grounds of his unsavoury image.

Surprisingly, Rane seems to have forgotten these grounds over which he had always opposed Alemao's comeback in the past. Despite fully knowing that Deputy Chief Minister Wilfred de Souza, his opponent and Alemao's political godfather, is the key player in the game, he has wholeheartedly supported the move, fearing defeat in the forthcoming assembly election.

Alemao seems confident that most of his conditions would be met by the Congress high command, including PCC presidency for him, ministerial berths for both the UGDP MLAs including his brother, four chairmanships of corporations and 12 out of the 40 assembly tickets for his party colleagues.

But his main handicap seems to be his inability to get the whole party along with him. Over 80 per cent of UGDP officials have now publicly declared a war against Alemao's move. "We will be much stronger once he leaves," states Shrirang Narvekar, the UGDP president.

After taking over the party reins prior to the 1994 assembly poll, he could win only three assembly seats in the Catholic-dominated Salcete taluka. But the UGDP was established when Alemao defeated five-time Congress MP and former minister Eduardo Faleiro in the 1996 Lok Sabha election.

Though Alemao was pushed to third position in February's election, only the UGDP and the BJP could establish themselves in both parliamentary constituencies despite getting defeated. The Congress, on the other hand, actually lost ground even though it won both seats.

Attempts have been on to woo Alemao back to the party fold since then, fearing the end of Congress rule in Goa after the next assembly poll, since the ruling party lost 21 out of the 40 assembly segments to the BJP and UGDP BJP in the parliamentary poll.

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