BJP’s Shripad Naik, Congress’ Ramakant Khalap battle it out for North Goa LS seat

A seasoned politician, Naik had contested his first elections in 1991 as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the south Goa parliamentary constituency unsuccessfully

Shripad Naik, 71, Union minister of state (MoS) for ports, shipping & waterways and tourism, aims to replicate his electoral luck as he tries to win the North Goa Lok Sabha constituency (formerly Panaji Lok Sabha seat) for the sixth successive term.

From 1999, his electoral ascent began when he emerged victorious from the North Goa LS seat. (Shripad Naik | Facebook)

A seasoned politician, Naik had contested his first elections in 1991 as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the south Goa parliamentary constituency unsuccessfully.

From 1999, his electoral ascent began when he emerged victorious from the North Goa LS seat.

His closest election was in 2009 when he defeated Congress candidate Jitendra Deshprabhu by more than 6,000 votes.

This time around, the five-time MP seems confident of his chances.

“I have been getting a good, positive response. People can see the work done by the Narendra Modi government. I expect that I will be voted in by an even greater margin this time,” Naik said as he traverses through the narrow lanes of the residential areas of Goa’s capital Panaji with senior BJP leaders amid slogans praising Prime Minister Modi.

Despite setbacks of losing his wife to a road accident and surviving a severe bout of Covid himself, Naik has come a long way.

Into his sixth campaign as an MP candidate, Naik has been touring the constituency banking largely only the BJP’s strength of organisation that includes the local MLA as well as councillors and local panchayat members.

The North Goa parliamentary constituency was a bastion of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) for as long as it was the pre-eminent force in Goa’s political scene and alternated between the MGP and Congress towards the latter years until Naik’s emergence in 1999.

With the MGP vote base – consisting mainly of the Hindu Bahujan Samaj -- a numerically superior force of historically marginalised Hindu lower castes that Naik also belongs to, shifting to the BJP with the decline of the regional party -- the seat has emerged a BJP bastion since then.

For most of Naik’s career, it was Manohar Parrikar, who controlled the Goa BJP as its prominent leader while the former took a backseat.

“Shripad Naik represents a clean candidate with an unblemished record. However, despite being one of the founding members of the Goa BJP, he has largely been a silent spectator over political happenings in the state. He has never made known his stance on issues in the state be it those affected by the Mopa airport, relief for those affected by the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) regulation or the national highway expansion. These are issues to be resolved at the central level and have definitely impacted locals,” said Swapnesh Sherlekar, an activist, when speaking about Naik’s tenure of 25 years as an MP.

Naik faces questions

At a meeting held in Mulgao village, which falls within the mining block, residents are asking for accountability from Naik.

“We asked him about the issues faced by the villagers of Mulgao, part of whose village falls within the mining lease. We are seeking exclusion of our village and temple from the lease. In response, he asked us to write to him to address our grievances. We told him that we had already written to him, but our request was ignored,” Sherlekar, a resident of Mulgao, said.

Naik, however, highlights his achievements during his tenure as an MP.

“The people have seen the centrally funded projects that I have brought during my tenure, be it the AYUSH Hospital, the Mopa airport and others. The Centre has spent nearly ₹36,000 crore in Goa during the last decade alone,” Naik said.

“I have had the opportunity to be an MP for five terms thanks to the love the people have shown me,” he added.

Opposition disagrees

The opposition, however, feels Naik has done nothing for the state despite having been an MP for five terms.

“Compare my 18-month tenure as MP and minister and compare his 25 years. I don’t want to ridicule anyone, but he has failed to raise even a single issue concerning Goa in Parliament,” Congress candidate for North Goa Ramakant Khalap said.

Naik had defeated Khalap in 1999 to win for the first time from the seat by a margin of 36,000 votes.

Khalap then a member of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, a regional front, who is now in his late 70s, was five-time MLA representing the Mandrem constituency between 1974-1994 and later between 1999-2002 and one time MP from North Goa representing the seat between 1996-1998.

He was the Union minister of law in the United Front government under Deve Gowda and IK Gujral.

“I have been an MLA, an opposition leader, a deputy CM, an MP, and the Union law minister. I have raised several issues regarding the state in Parliament,“ Khalap said.

North Goa is going to polls in third phase of polling on May 7 with the other parliamentary constituency, South Goa which will see a political battle between BJP’s Pallavi Srinivas Dempo and Captain Viriato Fernandes of the Congress.

The BJP had won both the Goa Lok Sabha seats in 2019.