Last time, you defeated Mr. Rane, who was a Congress candidate. This time, he is fighting under a different banner. Do you think that will help him?

Not really. Nobody knows Swabhiman Party so it’s as good as being an Independent. While [his father and Swabhiman Party chief] Narayan Rane has a base, it’s not enough to win a Lok Sabha election. Don’t forget, Nilesh Rane won on a Congress ticket because he got the support of traditional Congress voters. In this region, party matters more than the candidate.

Narayan Rane is the BJP’s Rajya Sabha member. People say this is a Sena vs. BJP election. If Nilesh Rane wins, he will side with the BJP. Do you think this will help him in the elections?

Narayan Rane has always seen to his selfish needs. He left the Sena, he left Congress, he criticised the BJP — all for selfish reasons. He even met [NCP chief] Sharad Pawar recently. People know that eventually he will betray them. He will bite the hand that feeds him.

Secondly, his rule was marred with violence. The murders and violence against political workers that took place under his watch haven’t happened any time before or after. In the last five years, not a single political murder has occurred. In the last election, this was one of the most sensitive parliamentary constituencies along with Gadchiroli.

What are the issues you are contesting the elections on?

We are fighting on various long-pending issues that we have tried to solve over the past five years, be it the expansion of the Mumbai-Goa Highway or the development of Chipi airport in Sindhudurg. We have plans to start a campus of the Mumbai University in Sindhudurg. We have also tried to solve issues of fisherman and to ease Coastal Regulatory Zone norms in the region.

According to fishermen practising traditional forms of fishing, LED fishing is a big issue in the district. What is your stand on it?

LED fishing should be banned. There is no question of supporting the practice. In 2015, I introduced a Bill asking the Central government to form a law protecting traditional fishing practices and banning LED fishing. Just as we scrapped the Nanar refinery, we will scrap LED fishing across the coastline and the country. There are different laws in our country regarding fishing across States. I have demanded that the country should have a common fishing policy — one each for the western and eastern coast.

Now that the Nanar project has been scrapped, do you think you stand a better chance of winning?

We didn’t oppose Nanar only with the view of elections. We believed that the project would have been disastrous for the Konkan region. The main beneficiaries were Saudi Arabia and the Central government. What would Konkan gain out of it? The claim of providing employment to one lakh locals was a complete lie. The project would have barely employed around 5,000 people.

Nilesh Rane had also opposed the project, and so had others.

That’s all a sham. Nilesh Rane, Narayan Rane and Nitesh Rane only act as if they care. Narayan Rane supported the nuclear energy plant at Jaitapur, which is barely 5 km from the refinery, and even brutally cracked down on those opposing the project. Was nuclear energy not as harmful as this refinery? We made it a key issue during our [alliance] negotiations with the BJP. People know which political party raised this issue on the street as well as in the government.

From the outside, it feels like a three-way fight, but over here it almost feels that the contest is between you and Mr. Rane. Does the Congress candidate lack a base?

The candidate doesn’t have a base, but the party does. The party’s core votes, which in the 2009 and 2014 elections went to Nilesh Rane, will go to him.