Prez recalls Bedi from Puducherry; Cong. govt shaky
Tamilisai is in-charge Lt. Gov
In a late-night development, Rashtrapati Bhavan announced that Kiran Bedi will “cease to hold” the office of lieutenantgovernor, but no reasons were given. Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has been given the additional charge of Puducherry till a full-time L-G is appointed.
Bedi was shifted out of the Union Territory on the day the Congress government in Puducherry was pushed to the precipice on Tuesday, on the eve of top party leader Rahul Gandhi’s visit.
A bid by Congress leaders to make Rahul Gandhi have a chance meeting with DMK president M.K. Stalin at the airport on Wednesday with a view to firming up the alliance between the two parties also didn’t work out as Mr Stalin decided to take an early morning flight ahead of Mr Gandhi’s arrival in Chennai.
Just as the Congress was planning to accord a grand reception to Rahul Gandhi, two of its MLAs, Malladi Krishna Rao and A. John Kumar, submitted their resignations, bringing down the
strength of the Congress to 10 in the 30-member House.
The latest resignations of Mr Krishna Rao, representing Yanam, and a minister in the Narayanasamy Cabinet, and Mr Kumar, elected from Kamaraj Nagar, led to AIADMK MLA A. Anbalagan demanding the resignation of Mr Narayansamy.
While Mr Narayanasamy, after discussing the issue with his party colleagues, did not put in his papers and decided to weather it out, it is not clear if the CM would be able to win a trust vote as dema-nded by Mr Anbalagan.
Though the Congress government started with 15 MLAs of its own and also three from its DMK ally, it started losing one MLA after another.