Ketan Bhatikar, a Goa Congress leader and former by-election candidate, was said to have died in an unusually shocking and tragic accident after being bitten by a cobra near the Anmod Ghat region, in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada district.
Ketan Bhatikar appeared to have driven away from the accident in Ponda, Goa, for party work with a friend near Ramanagar, in Joida taluk region, saying. On the way, the vehicle allegedly pulled off in the forest area in Anmod Ghat. When a cobra reportedly bit Bhatikar for urinating in a nearby forest area, there were reports of a similar event.
His condition had reportedly begun to deteriorate extremely fast immediately after the snake bite, sending panic through those near him. He was soon brought to the Goa Medical College and Hospital for treatment. Doctors could not rescue Ketan Bhatikar, and he was pronounced dead during treatment.
The episode has rocked Goa's politics on display, in which Bhatikar had been one of its highest-profile figures and the personification of a candidate for the presidency who was perceived to be acting in the public interest of a state that it did not want to acknowledge as the Congress party.
The death is recorded in a case at the Kolem Police Station and is being investigated, officials said. In Goa, Ketan Bhatikar got attention again in the political discourse after campaigning for the Congress in Ponda during the by-election. (The vote was held after the untimely death of Goa Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik, making it empty.
Certainly, political viewers as well as party members considered through Bhatikar's tough run a highly established frontrunner to a sizeable extent in the constituency as well. Even by the grassroots work he was doing now, and the growing popularity from his newfound audience, he had become an emerging figure within Goa Congress politics, in fact, one of the most influential young faces of the era.
Residents, political leaders and supporters expressed their condolences when they heard he died. Some of the Congress workers went sobs of shock that there was no way to describe it as the ultimate blow to their party, or at least to people who live in the region.
The Anmod Ghat stretch is on the Karnataka–Goa border and has a dense forest layer with wildlife habitat, and the venomous snakes are among its more common members. Snake sightings in the region are common, people say, particularly in humid weather.
The fatal death has also underscored the dangers people encounter when traversing remote forested areas. This makes people think twice if they are going to enter the remotest of trails in the forest along lines at night and in the rain. Ketan Bhatikar’s sudden death has plunged his followers into shock, as people at home imagined he would have a remarkable political future. His death is a huge blow to the Congress and to everyone else closely watching his political career in Goa.
