Goa's political heavyweights including the Chief Minister are assembled to campaign for former Union law minister and party candidate for the general elections, Ramakant Khalap. The speeches extend beyond dinner time but the barman is not worried. Presently, the gathering breaks up with the crowd squeezing into the bar and two others in the village.

Congress party activists are wining and dining the opinion makers of the area. As enormous quantities of liquor disappear down greedy gullets and the crowd gets progressively boisterous, it is clear who is winning this round of the political debate in Santa Cruz. "Bhai (Khalap) should have joined the Congress long ago," says one while refilling the glasses of his listeners. "Yes", they agree.

Then, the conversation shifts to local issues.One barfly, a bus owner-driver, begins his lament about the Congress party not doing enough to solve the problems of transporters. He is alternately cajoled and threatened before he returns to his drink in silence. The local MLA Victoria Fernandes will take care of your problems, he is told. Unfortunately for him, the brief interlude has broken the spell he had cast over his listeners and the conversation veers off in different directions.

The scene is replayed in a neighbouring bar where a crowd comes from the poorer sections. Feni, rather than Indian Made Foreign Liquor, is preferred here though the quantity consumed is similarly large. And, it's equally difficult to distinguish between party activists and voters.

In Taleigao, it's a different scene. Like Santa Cruz, it's an assembly segment of the Panaji Lok Sabha seat. The boisterousness is missing. Tipplers in pairs or small groups are hunched quietly over their drinks. The Congress MLA, it is whispered, is not working for the party's candidate. Thebar owner needs only a little prodding to speak. "Nobody is sponsoring booze on behalf of the Congress candidate," he says. Then he wonders if the BJP, which is gaining in strength here, will decide to use his bar to woo voters.

These `political managers' skip downtown Panaji bars since most customers there return to their villages on election day -- to vote. Middle-class government officials and well-heeled entrepreneurs are not as easily swayed by a tipple.

Together, the numerous bars and taverns across Goa play an important role in deciding the fate of politicians. Election-related norms, like say expenditure, are violated. Bar owners, doubling up as political canvassers, use their establishments to influence voters and keep party workers happy.

Candidates and their financiers square the accounts with bar-owners regularly. Since personal equations between politicians and liquor lobby are legendary, such expenses go unnoticed by the Election Commission too, admit officials. And, everybody has a goodtime.