4 out of 6 Indian Cardinals eligible to vote for next Pope

Of the six Indian Cardinals, four will be eligible to vote in the conclave to pick the next Pope. Cardinals are senior clergy who advise the Pope and compose the Electoral College, which elects the next Pope.

Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao, Archbishop of Goa, Daman, and Diu; Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, head of the Roman Catholic Church's Syro-Malabar branch; Jacob Koovakad of the Syro-Malabar Church; and Cardinal Anthony Poola, Archbishop of Hyderabad and the first Dalit to hold the post, are among the 138 Cardinals who will vote in the conclave. They are also viable candidates for the papacy, Free Press Journal reported.

Former Archbishop of Bombay Oswald Gracias, who participated in the conclave to elect Pope Francis and Archbishop Emeritus George Alencherry are unable to vote since they are beyond the age restriction for electors, which is 80.

The Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), a Mumbai-based activist community organisation, stated that Catholics will now have a new leader, and Goa's Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao will be one of the Indian electors, and it would not be remarkable if he emerges as a dark horse.