BJP veteran Shripad Naik, known for his simple lifestyle, enjoys an overwhelming support of his party cadre and voters, reflected in his six consecutive victories from the North Goa Lok Sabha seat.
The 71-year-old politician, who served as a minister in the last two governments led by Narendra Modi, suffered injuries in a road accident in neighbouring Karnataka in January 2021, in which he lost his wife and a personal assistant.
He underwent multiple surgeries and recovered, regaining the zest for life and later resumed his duties as the minister of state in the central government.
After being elected for the sixth time in a row from his North Goa stronghold in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls, Naik was inducted into the NDA government as a Minister of State (MoS) on Sunday evening.
He defeated Congress candidate and former Union minister Ramakant Khalap by a margin of more than 1 lakh votes.
In the last Modi government, Naik was the Minister of State for Tourism as well as Ports, Shipping and Waterways since 2021.
The veteran parliamentarian has also served as the MoS (independent charge) for the AYUSH Ministry, MoS for Defence and MoS (independent charge) of Culture and Tourism.
Born at Adpai village in Ponda taluka of North Goa, Naik was among the early members of the BJP in Goa along with other senior leaders like late Manohar Parrikar, Rajendra Arlekar and Laxmikant Parsekar.
He was elected for the first time from the North Goa seat on BJP's ticket in 1999 and later also successfully contested parliamentary polls from the seat in 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024.
In his interaction with reporters during the 2024 poll campaign, Naik said this would be his last parliamentary election and he would not contest after this.
The BJP leader said it was due to the support of the party cadre that he could win the elections so many times.