Roy Naik, who is contesting the by-election in Valpoi against Home Minister Viswajit Rane, is confident Congress will retain the seat.

Roy, the son of former chief minister and Ponda MLA Ravi Naik, says people are fed up with the by-election forced upon them.”The dictatorship of Rane and lack of development in Valpoi will be the decisive factors in Congress’ victory.”

Whilst campaigning in Usgao along with Congress President Shantaram Naik, Roy said that during his door-to-door visits, he has gathered from the voters that they are fed up with the unemployment problem in the constituency.

Roy said the voters are not happy with the by-election after electing a Congress man who ditched the party and joined the ruling coalition.

“It was the people’s demand which made me to decide and contest the by-poll,” said Roy, who is covering the distance on foot, visiting the houses in the constituency.

Roy feels that his father has done lot of development work in Usgao which once was a part of Ponda constituency. After being included in Valpoi constituency, the town has not seen much development in the past many years. He said that as far as employment, infrastructure and education is concerned, Valpoi has fallen behind compared to other villages in Goa especially in the remote areas where people do not have access roads.

“Some of the interior villages face issues of water shortage, lack of streetlights, etc,” Roy said.

Rane has, in the past, been promising lot of things, but he has not done anything concrete, Roy added.