Churchill Alemao’s merger of NCP legislative wing into TMC outrightly illegal: Sharad Pawar vows revenge, will proceed with legal action

MUMBAI: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Mumbai hit out at its lone MLA in Goa, Churchill Alemao who merged the legislative wing of the NCP Goa Unit with the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday.

A senior NCP spokesperson in Mumbai said the party was discussing Alemao’s merger attempt with its legal team and will take legal action against the Goa MLA.

Sources said NCP supremo Sharad Pawar was furious at the development in Goa and vowed revenge.

A close aide to Pawar and a prominent NCP leader from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg belt said, “One cannot mess around with Pawar saheb and get away with it. He (Alemao) has used the NCP as a doormat for his own selfish purpose. We will teach him a lesson in our own style. He can do what he wants to in his constituency in Benaulim, but let him try to enter Maharashtra and we will teach him a lesson he will never forget,” the leader warned.

Meanwhile in Goa, NCP State President Jose Philip D’Souza said the party would submit a petition to the speaker challenging Churchill Alemao’s claim and said the merger was illegal.

“The NCP local executive will take appropriate steps as per the decision of the high command,” said D’Souza.

D’Souza and other executive committee members held a press conference and condemned Alemao’s claims to have merged the NCP Goa legislative wing into the TMC.

“The MLA cannot merge one party into another. As per decision of our party high command, we will go to the speaker and demand action against Churchill as per law,” D’Souza was quoted by The Goan in a report.

D’Souza categorically stated that the NCP Goa legislative wing has not been merged with the TMC and that, the NCP party is very much in existence in Goa.

“We are a registered national party. A lone MLA Churchill Alemao submitting a resolution to the speaker stating that the NCP Goa legislative wing has merged in TMC has no meaning,” D’Souza told the The Goan.

Pune NCP leader Avinash Bhonsle condemned the TMC for taking in the leaders from other parties to show its existence in the State. “We don’t want to talk much about Churchill. He had supported the BJP government without consulting the party. Alemao has worked against the party. But we overlooked his misadventure for the sake of development in his constituency,” Bhonsle told The Goan.

Goa NCP leader Sanjay Barde said NCP has enough strength in Goa to fight elections on its own without Churchill Alemao. “Alemao has not talked to anyone. No office bearers were comsulted. He has acted on his own, which is illegal,” Barde said.