Seven Lok Sabha constituencies will decide the fate of 3 candidates in Assam, 2 in Goa, 1 each in Sikkim and Tripura today.  

 

Pollings for the 32-member Sikkim Assembly is also taking place simultaneously. Three districts in Assam – Karimganj, Silchar and Autonomous district, are entering into the fray on Saturday beside two Lok Sabha constituencies in Goa, North Goa and South Goa.

 

Also in this phase, one seat in Tripura and the lone Lok Sabha seat in Sikkim are voting. Former chief minister Ravi Naik of the Congress is being pitched against the three times BJP MP and former Union minister Sripad Naik in North Goa. The constituency is considered a saffron party stronghold.

 

In South Goa Congress sitting MP Francisco Sardinha has been replaced by Aleixo Reginaldo. According to political grapevine, he is facing uphill task this time even in a constituency that has returned a Congress candidate 10 times in 14 Lok Sabha polls. This is ascribed to a growing Modi popularity in the state.

 

The rightwing BJP which is in ruling the state has fielded Narendra Savoikar. Savoikar is leaving no stone unturned to win the dominant Catholics’ votes. However, an eleventh-hour counseling by a prominent Roman Catholic Church asking the Catholic population, which is more than 27 per cent in the state, to discard "communal BJP" has literally thrown a spanner in BJP’s hope to spread its wings in South Goa.