Punjab & Goa battle to begin on Saturday, preparations underway

Indian election officials examine Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) at a distribution centre in Amritsar on February 3, 2017. State Assembly elections are scheduled to take place in the states of Punjab, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur starting from February 4. / AFP PHOTO / NARINDER NANU

New Delhi: Archrivals BJP and Congress will battle it out in the electoral arena when polls are held in Punjab and Goa on Saturday, with Arvind Kejriwal's AAP, debuting in assembly elections in the two states seeking to play a spoilsport for the two major contenders to power.    BJP is in government in Punjab in alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for two successive terms, while it also helms Goa, despite ally Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party having drifted away just after the announcement of elections to form a three-party combine. The elections to Punjab and Goa, which will be followed by those in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur, beginning later this month and spilling over to March, are being billed as a major test of BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity post-demonetisation. In Punjab, 1.98 crore electors are elegible to vote to choose from among 1,145 candidates to elect a 117-member assembly, while 11 lakh voters will decide the fate of 250 nominees for the 40 seats in the tiny coastal state of Goa. In Punjab, where SAD-BJP alliance has been in power for the past decade, tomorrow's polling will decide the fate of a number of political bigwigs, including 89-year-old Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, seeking a sixth term in office, his old political rival and Congress' CM face Amarinder Singh, who has declared it will be his last election, and Badal's son and deputy Sukhbir. Badar Sr. is locked in a keen battle with Amarinder for the Lambi seat, the pocket borough of the Badals. Amarinder, the scion of Patiala royal family, is also in the fray from his home town where ready to give him a run for his money is the former army chief J J Singh of SAD. Stand-up comedian and AAP MP from Sangrur, Bhagwant Mann, who is a probable candidate for chief ministership if the party wins the election, is crossing swords with Sukhbir in Jalalabad. Navjot Singh Sidhu, the voluble cricketer-turned- politician, who quit BJP to join Congress just ahead of the polls, is trying his luck from Amritsar East seat, part of his former parliamentary constituency Amritsar. The other prominent candidates include Congress veteran and former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Lehragagga), Indian Youth Congress Chief Raja Amarinder Singh Warring (Gidderbaha), Badal's estranged nephew Manpreet Singh Badal on Congress ticket (Bathinda Urban). Voting will also take place tomorrow for Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after state Congress chief Amarinder Singh resigned to protest against the Supreme Court order on Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal. Prominent candidates in the fray are BJP's Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, who is up against Congress' Gurjit Singh Aujla and Aam Aadmi Party's Upkar Singh Sandhu. Goa, where chief ministership has been as fickle as the loyalties of its political leaders, Saturday's voting will decide the fate among others of five former CM's, besides incumbent Laxmikant Parsekar.  While Ravi Naik, Digambar Kamat, Pratapsinh Rane and Luizinho Faleiro are in the fray as Congress nominees, Churchill Alemao is contesting on NCP ticket.