Goa: Lok Sabha elections in a single phase, check details here

Lok Sabha elections and bypolls for three Assembly seats in Goa will be held on April 23, as per the announcement on Sunday by the Election Commission of India.

The state has two Parliamentary constituencies- North Goa and South Goa, both of which are currently held by the ruling BJP.

The bypolls to Shiroda and Mandrem were necessitated after its Congress MLAs resigned from the Legislative Assembly and party and joined the BJP.

The Mapusa bypoll was needed due to the death of sitting BJP MLA Francis D'Souza.

Union Ayush minister Shripad Naik represents North Goa while Narendra Sawaikar is South Goa MP.

BJP Goa general secretary Sadanand Shet Tanawade said the party would soon form its election committee to finalise candidates for the polls.

Congress state unit chief Girish Chodankar said his party would announce names of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in the next "five to ten days".

Candidates for the three bypolls would be chosen after deliberations at the state-level, Chodankar added.

The Aam Aadmi Party, meanwhile, has said that former bureaucrat Elvis Gomes will contest from South Goa while its state general secretary Pradeep Padgaonkar will be fielded from North Goa.

The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, an ally in the Manohar Parrikar government, has announced that its president Dipak Dhavalikar would contest the bypoll from Shiroda.
The present term saw lot of turncoat politics with 43 Congress MLAs pulling down Nabam Tuki government by shifting loyalty to Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA) that soon merged with the BJP.

The ensuing Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Arunachal would witness a keen contest between the BJP, Congress, NPP, PPA and Janata Dal (Secular).

While the ruling BJP would contest the elections on developmental plank, the opposition parties are expected to use the Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) as their trump card, besides law and order and corruption issues.

During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the state, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju won from Arunachal West Parliamentary constituency while Ninong Ering of the Congress won the Arunachal East seat.

In the Assembly elections of 2014, the Congress had won 42 seats while the BJP succeeded in 11. The Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA) won 5 seats while two went to independents.