Congress will not bow to blackmailers: Alva

Panaji, May 11 (UNI) All India Congress Committee general secretary Margaret Alva, while maintaining that the Congress will not bow down to ''blackmailers'', said the exit of Churchil Alemao would not affect the party's prospects in the June 2 Goa elections.

Referring to Mr Alemao, she said, ''Nobody is worried about Churchil leaving the party. He continues to remain a joke and no one takes him seriously.'' Ms Alva was addressing a press conference in the presence of Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane and GPCC president Ravi Naik.

The Congress had shown leniency when Churchil was implicated in the cash-for-query scam and stood by his side. Yet, he has been ungrateful and irresponsible, she said.

In a caustic reference to Mr Alemao's ''Save Goa Front'', Ms Alva quizzed, ''From whom should one save Goa?'' She also wanted to know whether Mr Alemao had raised any issues relating to Goa in Parliament.

She ridiculed Mr Alemao for talking about extending support to the BJP when he himself had pleaded to Sonia Gandhi to save Goa from BJP rule.

''Let Goans be saved from people like Churchil who has proved to be a Judas,'' Ms Alva said while adding that it appeared as if Mr Alemao had struck a deal with the BJP.

The Congress, she said, believes in providing ''stability and development and invesment in infrastructure for providing people with jobs.'' In five years, Goa will celebrate the golden jubilee of its liberation from the Portuguese yoke under the Congress regime, she remarked.

Asked as to why no women had been given tickets so far, she shot back, ''Ask the men in the GPCC.'' To a question about issuing more than one ticket to a family, she said the decision of party chief Sonia Gandhi was final on this issue.

UNI