Goa elections: Politics turn murky

Sounds like a scene from the badlands of Bihar or Uttar Pradesh? It's not. This is Goa and its politicians trying to jostle for pole position while gearing up for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Thursday night's attack on maverick Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Vishnu Wagh allegedly by his own party's political workers has raised the political pitch in Goa, where the ruling saffron party, which swept to power last year on an ethical and good governance vote, is finding the ground below slipping on account of corruption and ham-handed governance.

Wagh, a legislator from St. Andre, was returning from a cultural programme in the Thivim constituency of north Goa, home to state Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nilkanth Halarnkar, when the assault happened.

"They were my party workers who were angry that I was attending a cultural event organised by Nilkanth. I have every right to attend a cultural event which has no political colour," said Wagh, admitted to the Goa Medical College in Bambolim, three km from the state capital Panaji.

Wagh, a renowned writer, dramatist and poet, has been vocal about his criticism of the BJP, especially Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and has been openly flirting with the NCP over the possibility of contesting for the North Goa Lok Sabha seat.

In the past, he has even been warned by the state party bosses against doing so.

The NCP has admitted to Wagh's overtures, with its vice president Trajano D'Mello claiming the BJP MLA was speaking to party supremo Sharad Pawar.

"Our decision-making happens at the Centre. There is no point of his talking to leaders here," D'Mello said.

The attack, however, has given the opposition yet another handle to lash out at the ruling BJP.

"Parrikar cannot protect his own MLA from getting beaten up by party cadre? Will this case be treated super efficiently like (Tarun) Tejpal's where the police filed an FIR based on information available online or like the Vasco rape case, where even after a year, police are still looking for the man who raped a seven-year-old girl?" asked Halarnkar, who Friday publicly named over six persons who he claims attacked Wagh.

Till Friday afternoon, the police failed to make any arrest.

The BJP, meanwhile, kept the media at bay over the issue, with only its state president Vinay Tendulkar coming on record to deny the hand of the party cadre in the assault.

"The attack was choreographed by the NCP. They are putting the blame on us," Tendulkar said.

The other MLA who escaped the wrath of the mob was Independent MLA Vijai Sardesai, a close ally of Halarnkar and whose name has surfaced for trying to destabilise the Parrikar-led coalition government.

"I did not fire from my weapon. I only flashed it at them after which they moved away from my car," Sardesai said.