Puducherry govt falls on brink of elections
Narayanswamy resigns as CM after Congress govt loses two more MLAs ahead of floor test
CHENNAI: V Narayanasamy resigned as Puducherry chief minister on Monday ahead of a floor test to prove that his party, the Congress, has a majority, throwing the Union Territory (UT) into a crisis, potentially just weeks before assembly elections are announced.
Narayanasamy had looked set to lose the floor test. The Opposition, comprising the All India NR Congress and the AIADMK, has a majority of 14 representatives, including three nominated MLAs representing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 33-member House. It is unlikely to stake a claim to form government, and President’s rule is imminent, opposition party leaders said.
The Congress was jolted with six (five Congress and one Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) legislators resigning in the run-up to the trust vote, ordered by the newly appointed Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Tamilisai Soundararajan after it was sought by the Opposition.
When legislators occupied the assembly on Monday, there were seven vacancies in the 33-member (30 elected; 3 nominated) assembly. The government’s
strength was 12, including two DMK MLAs, an independent legislator and speaker VP Sivakozhundu. The speaker votes only when there is a tie. There was no need for that, though.
The collapse of the government means the Congress isn’t part of the government in any southern state or UT. Since 2019, the Congress has seen its governments collapse in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, largely on account of internal issues.
In an hour-long speech on the floor of the assembly, Narayanasamy attacked the BJP-led Centre and recently ousted L-G Kiran Bedi for colluding with the
Opposition and topping his government. “What is happening in Puducherry now is political prostitution, but the truth will prevail,” Narayanasamy said.
Narayanasamy and his loyalists argued that the nominated members could not vote. Opposition MLAs were on their feet, drawing to their defence a Supreme Court ruling that interpreted the 1963 UT Act that allows nominated members the powers of elected MLAs.
Soon after, Narayansamy and his 11 MLAs walked out. “We walked out as the Speaker refused to accept our contention that only elected members and
not nominated MLAs have a right to vote,” said Narayanasamy, who then submitted his resignation to Soundararajan.
Last Tuesday, amidst Congress MLAs resigning, Bedi was removed as L-G and Telangana governor Soundararajan was handed additional charge of Puducherry. Narayanasamy, who had been at odds with Bedi since 2016, had appealed to the President to recall her and rejoiced at her removal. But senior BJP leaders in the Capital said at the time that they didn’t want a seemingly partisan person to be L-G when President’s rule seemed imminent.
BHUBANESWAR: After 22 years, Odisha Police have arrested the third and the last accused in a gang rape case that triggered state-wide outcry and led to the ouster of then Congress chief minister JB Patnaik in 1999, officials said on Monday.
Police said 50-year-old Bibekananda Biswal, alias Biban, was picked up from Maharashtra’s Aamby Valley township on Sunday. He was working as a plumber, allegedly masquerading as a man identified as Jalandhar Swain, said BhubaneswarCuttack police commissioner Sudhansu Sarangi.
“After getting a tip-off on Biswal, we started ‘Operation Silent Viper’ to catch hold of him. With the help of Pune Rural police, we tracked him down...,” Sarangi told the press in Bhubaneswar.
Sarangi said Biswal got an Aadhaar card and a new voter identity card made in his fake name. “He used to send money to his family. He was asking his family to get a death certificate made so that Biban Biswal can be shown as dead in police records. We have informed the CBI about his arrest and waiting to hand him over,” Sarangi said.
Biswal, Padia Sahoo, then 26, and Dhirendra Mohanty, then 25, were named in the gang rape of Anjana Mishra, then 29, on a desolate stretch of a highway connecting Cuttack and state capital Bhubaneswar on the night of January 9, 1999. The three intercepted her and her journalist friend while they were on their way to Bhubaneswar. Her friend was held at gunpoint.
The incident came about a year and half after Mishra, the estranged wife of an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer, accused Indrajit Ray, the then Odisha advocate general, of molesting her in his chamber. In her first information report (FIR), Mishra alleged that top functionaries of the government ordered the rape to silence her.
The gang rape of Mishra became a politically sensitive case and eventually led to the stepping down of then CM JB Patnaik at the insistence of the Congress high command.
As the news of Biswal became public, Mishra demanded that he be hanged till death. At a press conference in Bhubaneswar on Monday, she accused the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the case, of denying her justice.
“Over the years, multiple attempts have been made to eliminate me. My house (Bhubaneswar) was vandalised. I was not allowed to stay in my house. I am forced to live with my mother (in the same city),” Mishra, who has separated from her husband, said. She alleged that Biswal evaded arrest for years due to a section of Congress leaders backing him.
Congress legislator Suresh Routray, however, dismissed the charge. “It is a laughable allegation. We are happy that Biswal has been arrested,” said Routray.
At the time of the incident, Mishra was locked in a marital dispute with her husband. On July 11, 1997, she visited the chamber of then advocate general Ray to discuss a case of dowry harassment.Later, she alleged that Ray tried to sexually harass her.
On February 2, 2000, a CBI court in Bhubaneswar found Ray guilty of molesting Mishra and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment and handed him a ₹5,000 fine. He was arrested the same day but released minutes later on a bail bond of ₹40,000 and two sureties. He appealed against the order in a higher court, but died in 2008 before the judgment was out.
In her FIR, Mishra accused CM JB Patnaik of engineering the gang rape so as to scare her into withdrawing the case against Ray, a friend of the Congress leader. As opposition parties mounted pressure for his resignation, JB Patnaik quit his post on February 17, 1999. In April 2000, assembly elections were held and a government by the Biju Janata Dal, which is still ruling the state, came to power.
Sahoo and Mohanty were arrested in January 1999, days after the crime. The Orissa high court ordered a CBI investigation into the gang rape case and a charge sheet was filed that May. In April 2002, a CBI court in Bhubaneswar sentenced Sahoo and Mohanty to life imprisonment and fined each of them ₹5,000. The high court upheld that verdict in 2010. Sahoo died in 2020, while Mohanty is serving his sentence in special jail of Bhubaneswar.