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Alemao refuses to stand 'united'

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji.

Goa sure is fun.

There is sun, there is sand, and then there is United Goans Democratic Party supremo Churchill Alemao.

Alemao, we had reported earlier, has been entertaining everyone but the United Front with a little squabble with colleague and Union Law Minister Ramakant Khalap. Now, things have come to such a standoff that he can be described only as a major pain to his bosses -- and that, if you are to use the mildest of mild phrases. For, he flatly refuses to withdraw his party candidate against Khalap.

"I don't mind even if I am thrown out of the United Front," said the south Goan MP, "I will fight Khalap."

Khalap had put Alemao's back up by campaigning that he was nothing but a goon, thus spoiling the MP's ministerial ambitions. Pitting a candidate against the law minister, who is pretty shaky in own constituency, is Alemao's way of getting back at him.

The UF's reaction to the squabble came through Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. No UF constituent, he announced, will be allowed to contest against another.

"We will stand united as a rock," the Janata Dal biggie said.

But Alemao doesn't want to. Not in Goa, anyway.

"Let them expel me if they want. I don't care," came his belligerent reply, "I refuse to accept such guidelines..."

Now let's leave Alemao to his game and take a quick look at Paswan's own uncertain future. The minister has ruled out any truck with Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal.

"We don't want to have any relation with those who have connections with either the Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party," he said, "In Bihar there is an anti-Laloo today. It will finish his hegemony over the state."

Paswan, the last we heard of, was 'determined' to contest the Hajipur seat (which he won last time, thanks mainly to Laloo's support), claiming he would not only win but get a 'better margin' too...

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