Time is ticking for the Chief Minister
PUDUCHERRY Chief Minister N. Rangaswamy is barely as active as he used to be during his earlier stints. Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, formerly the BJP State president in Tamil Nadu, routinely conducts review meetings with officials and makes it a point to visit the General Hospital at least once a week. Soundararajan has two roles: L-G in Puducherry, and full-fledged Governor in Telangana.
Soundararajan was given additional charge of Puducherry after the abrupt sacking of Kiran Bedi a month ahead of the 2021 Assembly election. Kiran Bedi was constantly at loggerheads with the then Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, and had resorted to running a parallel administration, even as Narayanasamy repeatedly reminded her that he headed the elected government. Bedi claimed that she had the same powers as the Delhi L-G and continued to disrupt the functioning of the government. Today, Soundararajan is doing a Kiran Bedi, minus the resistance from the Chief Minister.
BJP has targeted Puducherry, an administrative region where the unelected representative from New Delhi, the L-G, wields more power than the elected politicians because of a provision in the Constitution. The BJP’S logic is that if the L-G calls the shots, then it is easy to supplant the entire machinery and the legislative set up with its own people, or encourage local politicians to join it.
This logic was aided by the fact that in Puducherry the politicians are businessmen, traders, or contractors, with malleable ideology. The BJP has employed the Goa-north East formula and attracted MLAS and influential businessmen into its fold. It was, hence, relatively easy for the saffron party to topple the Congress government just ahead of the 2021 Assembly election.
When the results of the 2021 Assembly election were announced, 10 NR Congress candidates had won. The BJP won six as part of an alliance with Rangaswamy’s party. Without consulting Rangaswamy, the BJP appointed three nominated MLAS in a jiffy using the powers of the L-G. Soon after the election, there was a time lag of over a month for Ministry formation because Rangaswamy, who was sworn in as Chief Minister, decided to put his foot down. He could not hold out for too long because he was made aware of the ‘stick’ in the BJP armoury, routinely employed against opposition politicians.
The ‘carrot’ was the Chief Ministership. Despite all his political shrewdness and experience, Rangaswamy was a lame-duck Chief Minister from day one.
He continues to be so today. It might not be for too long. The outer limit is the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Rangaswamy is in a bind even as he sees his party, NR Congress, melt away and join the all-gobbling BJP: if he acts in haste, he could lose his chair right away, and if he delays he will lose his chair anyway.
Right now, according to one politician who is aware of the behind-the-scenes deals, Rangaswamy cannot count on the support of more than six MLAS. The BJP can unseat him at any time. The local BJP leaders–largely those who changed colours under duress or inducement–are clamouring to unseat him. At this point the former French colony is again up for grabs.