Puducherry CM may quit prior to vote
Trust motion today, govt short of numbers, 2 more MLAs resign
The spotlight on Monday will be on beleaguered Puducherry chief minister V. Narayanasamy as he is due to face a vote of confidence in the Assembly on Monday.
Peeved by the resignation of DMK MLA Venkatesan as well as another MLA, K. Lakshminarayanan, deserting the Congress on Sunday, the chief minister may decide to put in his papers rather than face the Assembly where his government is clearly in a minority. Coming out of a meeting with Congress legislators late on Sunday night, the CM said he would make his decision known after consulting allies but before the Assembly is to convene on Monday.
The Congress has lost five MLAs over the last couple of weeks besides the party disqualifying one MLA for anti-party activities. With the latest resignation of two MLAs, the ruling front’s strength has been reduced to 12 MLAs in a House with an effective strength of 26. The resignation of DMK MLA Venkatesan brings back to focus the strained ties between the Congress and the DMK in the Union territory where the Congress has been ruling for close to five years with DMK support. With elections on the horizon in Tamil Nadu as well as in Puducherry, the ties are said to be at a breaking point, with the DMK eyeing Puducherry as a ground for trying to gain power on its own or in any other alliance it
can hope to work out.
The Puducherry CM is also said to be very unhappy with the silence of the DMK while the desertion by legislators was going on unabated over the last couple of weeks. Apart from a statement on the removal of lieutenant-governor Kiran Bedi, the DMK had said nothing about MLAs quitting the Congress as part of a destabilisation game being obviously played in the Union territory. The CM has condemned the toppling but the DMK has had little to say.
With Mr Namasivayam, who led the Congress to victory in 2016, leaving him and shifting to the BJP, CM Narayanasamy, who was thrust by the Congress high command over the elected MLAs, finds himself without too many friends now. K. Lakshminarayanan, elected from Raj Bhavan constituency, tendered his resignation to the Assembly Speaker at the latter’s residence on Sunday, saying he wasn’t made a minister despite his seniority. “The ruling Congress has been reduced to a minority and I can’t be fully (responsible) for the crisis,” he said.
The Speaker can vote only when there is a tie, but a constitutional crisis
■ could be created if he does not count the votes of the three nominated MLAs who are listed as belonging to the BJP. They have the right to vote, according to a Supreme Court ruling, but the Speaker can take a different view as he is the presiding officer of the Assembly.
Of the many possible scenarios, the resignation of the CM with the hope that the lieutenant-governor may make him the caretaker till the polls seems the most likely. Winning the trust vote in a contentious way by ignoring the three nominated MLAs (of BJP) might still lead to a crisis and a spell of President’s Rule would become possible. If the government falls in the trust vote, an alternative in the Rangasaamy-led NR Congress-plus may get a chance, but with the polls only two months away it might seem inappropriate to usher in a new government. It does seem that Central rule is in the offing in Puducherry.