Openly daring the party to expel him, the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vishnu Wagh took to the streets on Saturday, along with students, against the Goa government’s policy on the medium of instruction for primary education that allows continuation of government grants to diocesan primary schools even if they adopt English.
Mr. Wagh’s name is on the candidate list of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance for the north Goa seat for the Lok Sabha elections. Pradesh Congress Committee president John Fernandes last week did not rule out the possibility of the alliance fielding him.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said there were nothing new in Mr. Wagh’s overtures to the Opposition, but it was left to the BJP to act against him or not.
The BJP has been putting up with his open defiance and writings in newspapers against the party leadership in a strategic move to deny him an opportunity to pursue his political ambitions with the Congress as an unattached MLA.
“I challenge the BJP to expel me from the party. The party and its government have fooled Goans on the medium-of-instruction policy. I defy the party stand,” Mr. Wagh said after joining the agitation on Saturday.
Mr. Wagh, who had joined the BJP ahead of the previous Assembly elections on the plank of opposing the policy, is now set to use the controversy to hit back at the BJP.
