Setback for Congress in Puducherry as Narayanasamy Govt Loses Majority Ahead of Elections

16-02-2021

Months before elections, the Congress-led Puducherry government has lost its majority after four of its MLAs resigned in the past few days and another MLA was disqualified. After the 2016 assembly elections, the Congress won 15 seats while its alliance partner DMK got four and the support of one independent. On the opposition side, NR Congress won seven and its alliance partner AIADMK secured four. However, Lt Governor Kiran Bedi nominated three from the BJP with voting rights, thus increasing the strength of the 30-member assembly to 33. Since Chief Minister V Narayanasamy formed the government, he has been accusing the Lt Governor of not allowing him to work. Recently, he met the President with a memorandum against the Lt Governor. Narayanasamy had said he had sought an appointment with the President as the alleged intervention of Bedi was throwing routine governance out of gear. He further said the officials were also allegedly being threatened by the Lieutenant Governor and hence they could not find a free atmosphere to discharge their duties. He had also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bedi of trying to dismantle the separate status of Puducherry and merge it with neighbouring Tamil Nadu. "The Prime Minister and the Lieutenant Governor, along with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been slowly depriving Puducherry government of its powers and impeding several welfare and developmental schemes proposed by the elected government." In the past few days, four Congress MLAs resigned one after another and some even took to Twitter to announce their resignation. The chief minister is expected to meet the media after his meeting with the alliance partners during which he will likely announce enmasse resignation. The exits come just before Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's visit to Puducherry on Wednesday to prepare the election roadmap, his first since the party took power in the Union Territory. Elections are due by May in Puducherry and neighbouring Tamil Nadu.