things are looking rather sticky for congress mla chandrakant babu kavlekar with the anticorruption branch acb snapping at his heels the investigation against the clp leader started in 2013 has been revived with great vigour since chief minister manohar parrikars reelection to the panaji seat last month it underlines parrikars renewed assertiveness after five months spent fending off criticism for the bjps questionable retake of powerkavlekar could well become the next politicianafter churchill alemaoto enjoy the comforts and modern amenities of the central jail at colvale the mlas bail application will come up before the court on friday gpcc president shantaram naik should prepare himself for the unspooling of more embarrassment the news is meant to make national headlines it is no small matter for a states leader of opposition to be arrested it wont make the congress in goa headless or leaderlessit has never been short of leaders but it will push the party to the defensive at a time when it has the numbers in the house to pick on the regimes failingsthe cm has denied the squeeze on the quepem mla and the dredging of his assets and liabilities has anything to do with politics why should it be a politically motivated case he asked his statement would have carried some credibility if the timeline of police action was not so suspect investigations into kavlekars holdings started in 2013 a year after parrikar came to power on a full mandate the acb summoned him 25 times between 201314 when his factory and properties in kerala were also inspected the mla told toi nothing was heard of the case for four years till the fir popped up some days ago in notably altered political circumstances the bjp no longer has a majority on its own and the power plot remains ever fluid the unpredictability of allies more so those with shylockian intent would make any leader edgythe bjps 2017 compromise on corruption has unmasked the partys moral aura the half dozen and more who had been named and shamed over graft in the past now sit in the ruling camp one of them has even been publicly pardoned as not really a scammer but a failed scammer of an attempt to scam the selective shakedown of kavlekar or atanasio babush monserrates overnight hopstepandjump into goa forward or the long rope extended to dilip parulekar in the beachcleaning fraud sends out the blunt message stay on the right side of the political fence and protection is yours for the askingchurchills convincing victory from benaulim despite his two months incarceration for alleged kickbacks in the louis berger case says a lot about voter cynicism over corruption in goa when jobs are hard to come by standards of higher education pathetic and development is no more than a euphemism for politicians to hand out doles at taxpayers expense and skim off opaque government contracts its not difficult to figure out why kavlekars shiny white bungalow in betul and his seemingly charmed