Goa BJP MLA airlifted to Mumbai for treatment

Panaji, Aug 18 (IANS) BJP MLA and assembly Deputy Speaker Vishnu Wagh, who suffered a heart attack on August 15, was on Thursday airlifted to a private hospital in Mumbai.

It was the second heart attack for Wagh in two months.

A senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said that Wagh, a legislator from St. Andre constituency in north Goa, was shifted from the Goa Medical College, near Panaji, to the Dabolim international airport late on Thursday evening for flying to Mumbai in a specially chartered aircraft.

State BJP president Vinay Tendulkar told IANS that the party had requested the BJP-led coalition government to foot the medical expenses of Wagh, including the air travel to Mumbai.

"We have asked the government to ensure that all of Wagh's medical expenses are borne by it... in the past too, when our Deputy Speaker Narhari Halarnkar was unwell, he had been airlifted to Mumbai for treatment," Tendulkar said.

Wagh, a former journalist, writer and poet, had suffered a massive heart attack in May as well, for which he underwent an angioplasty.