SHRIPAD NAIK (BJP)
PANAJI
THE GOAN: This is your sixth election in a row. How do you rate your chances?
SHRIPAD NAIK: The BJP having governments here and at the Centre is an advantage. The party's strong organisation and MGP aligning with us, which was not the case last time, will ensure I win.
TG: However, this time you have the formidable Ramakant Khalap, a former Union law minister who has won the seat once before, as your main rival?
SN: Khalap cannot defeat me. The last time we fought each other in 1999, he lost and that was my first election for the North Goa seat. He is past his political prime and is now reactivated after getting the ticket, with a nearly 20-year break from electoral politics.
TG: There is visible voter fatigue, since it is nearly 25 years that you are representing the constituency. The general refrain, even among some BJP karyakatas, that 'Bhau boro munis, punn kama zaina' (Bhau is a good man but ineffective and cannot get work done). How do you counter it?
SN: The details are in the booklet we released of the development in my 10-year tenure from 2014. More than 1,200 projects were sanctioned under MPLAD in these 10 years, with over 1,100 completed -- 91 public halls, 72 crematoria, classrooms auditoriums, laboratories for educational institutions.
Every school in North Goa has got some benefit or the other from my MPLAD fund.
North Goa Lok Sabha seat was notorious for being harsh on the sitting MP, with not one having got re-elected until I broke this jinx in 2004. I would have not got elected for five terms if people were tired of me as their MP.
TG: Your wife is not besides you for the first time in this election. Any thoughts?
SN: We have to accept it. Although others in the family are helping me, that void cannot be filled.
