Former Goa CM Churchill Alemao quits TMC, may join Ajit Pawar's NCP camp soon

Churchill Alemao, former Goa Chief Minister, quit the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress on Saturday. According to sources, Alemao is likely to join the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The development came a day after Alemao met NCP leader Praful Patel in Mumbai on Friday, August 18.

Meanwhile, the NCP supremo Sharad Pawar-led faction said Alemao has not reached out to the party. Rejecting the claims of Alemao joining Sharad Pawar’s camp, party observer in Goa Clyde Crasto said, “Goa NCP will be led by state unit president Jose Philip D’Souza under the leadership and guidance of NCP National President Sharad Pawar.”

Churchill joined TMC ahead of Goa polls  

Notably, the former Goa Chief Minister, along with his daughter Valanka, joined the TMC in December 2021 ahead of the Assembly elections in the coastal state. Churchill Alemao was the lone NCP MLA in Goa Assembly when he switched sides to Mamata Banerjee’s TMC. Soon after joining the TMC, he claimed that the entire Goa NCP had merged with the TMC. However,  Alemao's 2021 entry into the TMC wasn't his first, he had earlier contested the 2014 Parliamentary elections as a TMC candidate from the South Goa parliamentary seat.

Alemao has been a Chief Minister, a member of Parliament and a minister in the state Cabinet. However, the father-daughter duo Churchill Alemao and Valanka Alemao lost the Assembly polls in Goa, which were held in February 2022. While Churchill Alemao was defeated by AAP's Venzy Viegas in Benaulim, Valanka Alemao lost to the BJP's Ulhas Tuenkar Navelim.

Interestingly, Alemao was earlier with Congress and has served as the Chief Minister of the state for 18 days as part of the Progressive Democratic Front, which was led by the grand old party.