PANAJI
He has fought elections at least a dozen times, mostly ending as the winner.
But on Wednesday, when Ramakant Khalap walked up to Sneha Gite, IAS, to file his nomination papers, he probably felt like a novice as it is 22 long years now that he fought his last electoral battle -- his seventh but unsuccessful bid to become Mandrem MLA, back in 2022.
Amidst all the euphoria in the procession that accompanied him to do the honours of filing his papers as the Congress candidate, Khalap said he "felt young" again.
The white-haired politician is 76 years old and a veteran of politics in Goa having made his debut as MLA in the bye-election following the death of Goa's first chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar.
He went on to become MLA of Mandrem five more times in a 22-year period of his career when he went on to become Opposition Leader and Deputy Chief Minister for a brief 10 months in the PDF government.
He has also fought the election for the North Goa Lok Sabha election thrice in the past -- twice as the MGP candidate (1996 and 1998) and once on the Congress ticket (1999).
He won the seat once in 1996 and went on to become Union law minister in the Deve Gowda and IK Gujral governments.
