Lok Sabha elections 2024: ‘I have been working for development’

BJPs Lok Sabha candidate for Raver Raksha Nikhil Khadse is a powerful name in Jalgaon district A twotime sitting member of parliament the 37yearold Khadse first entered the parliament in 2014 as one of Indias youngest MPs at the age of 26 and is now vying for the seat for the third time to make a hat trick Born Priyanka Jagdish Patel she is the widow of Nikhil Khadse son of Jalgaons towering leader Eknath Khadse Walking around in 42degC heat in the interior villages of Raver constituency she has been facing villagers headon answering all their queries patiently midday caught up with her on a tour after a gram sabha visit in the Wadoda hamlet in Malkapur tehsilExcerptshellipYou have been a twotime MP How do you sense the public mood this time given the changing political equations and new alignmentsThe changes and equations will not affect me as I have been working for the constituency in a focused manner with overall developmentWhat are your key achievements in the last ten yearsDevelopment of roads infrastructure and rail Look at the roads here The main roads are done and now we are doing up the interior ones In the next few years all of them will be complete and the next step after this will be bringing in industriesParts of national highway 753B passing through Muktainagar despite MP Raksha Khadse promising it would pass through Revar PicAshish RajeThere are allegations that the national highway that was to go from Raver has now changed alignmentshellipNo This is incorrect The alignment studies are on and as I promised the highway will pass through Raver and lead to developmentHow do you counter claims of the Opposition candidate that you are never seen in the constituencyLaughs Is it so If that is the case what am I doing here I am the one who has been visiting every village in the constituency The development reflects my workYour fatherinlaw has begun actively campaigning for youhellipYes I have his blessings and his active involvement now will improve the prospects furtherYour family is split with different members in different political parties Eknath Khadse was in BJP quit joined NCP and is now back in BJPhellip and daughter Advocate Rohini Khadse heads the womenrsquos wing of NCPSharad PawarhellipYes But you cannot term it as a family fight I have always been with the BJP since the beginning and will keep working The larger picture is about fighting for the cause of people which we as a family have been doingThere are issues of unemployment and jobs for the youth who end up migrating to urban hubsIndustries do not come when there is no infra or good roads The roads are almost developed now and the interiors are being done now The railway network is being upgraded and there has been an overall improvement in all sectors That has been my focus The improvement of infra will continue and the next step in all this is to get industries to Raver My focus will remain on thatRaver despite being the banana belt does not have enough allied businessesYes Raver grows bananas on a large scale I have been working on a project submitted to the horticulture department for cluster development for the fruit It will help in banana exportSWOT analysis Raksha KhadseStrengthsgtgt Sitting twotime MP knows tricks of the campaigninggtgt Has been support pillar of womenrsquos help groupsWeaknessesgtgt Electorate not happy with pace of workgtgt Complaints of not being seen in the constituencyOpportunitiesgtgt A completely weak and novice politician as the rival candidategtgt Has support of fatherinlaw a towering politicianThreatsgtgt Sisterinlaw Advocate Rohini Khadse is supporting rival candidate Shriram Patil and Sharad Pawar is backing Patil banking for agrarian issues