Ram Naik is the Bombay railway commuter's voice in Parliament
A seasoned parliamentarian, Ram Naik, who
was sworn in as minister of state in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government
today, has won the Lok Sabha elections from the Bombay North
constituency four consecutive times.
Chief whip of BJP's parliamentary party in the
11th Lok Sabha, Naik today stands taller than most of his
Maratha rivals by securing a thumping, 75,017 vote win -- the largest in Bombay in the 1998 election.
Before his parliamentary debut, he had been returned to the Maharashtra
legislative assembly three times in a row from Borivili. He won
the Lok Sabha elections in 1989, 1991, 1996 and 1998 from
the Bombay North constituency.
Naik went to school at Atpadi, a backward town in Sangli
district of Maharashtra and worked his way to college, earning
a B Com degree from Pune. He also graduated in law while working as
a clerk in the office of the accountant general. Later, he worked as
a company secretary with Khira group of industries but gave up the
job to become the organising secretary of the
Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1969, and thus became a full-time public
worker.
During the Emergency, Naik was involved in
organising the people against the Indira Gandhi
government. Later, when the Janata Party was formed, he was
elected its first president for the city.
Naik also worked with distinction as the chairman, public
accounts committee during 1995-96. In the 11th Lok Sabha he
discharged various responsibilities such as convenor of the study group
for metropolitan suburban railways of the parliamentary standing
committee.
He was also a member of the joint parliamentary committee on the
securities scam and 33 per cent reservation for women's bill,
chairman of parliamentary catering committee and member of the committee
to review the deep sea fishing policy on foreign joint ventures and
of the study group for aqua-culture farms in coastal states.
Naik, as 'a commuters' man', has been championing the cause of
Bombay's suburban railway commuters, both inside and outside
Parliament.
The introduction of Vande Mataram in the House proceedings,
sanction of Rs 10 million MP local area development fund and the use
of 'Mumbai' in English and Hindi instead of 'Bombay' and 'Bambai'
are some of his achievements, besides the introduction
and passing of a private member's bill on the promotion of breast
feeding and ban on baby food advertisements.
UNI
Elections '98
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