Crisis in Pondy govt as one more MLA quits
Opposition demands resignation of CM Narayansamy
The Congress government in Puducherry faced a major existential crisis on Tuesday with one more MLA, A John Kumar, resigning bringing the strength of the ruling party and its ally DMK on a par with that of the opposition’s tally. The development comes just a day before the scheduled visit of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to the poll-bound Union Territory. The Opposition parties have been quick to demand the resignation of Chief Minister Narayansamy.
Much of the current crisis has come about thanks to the BJP’s meticulously executed Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh type of strategy to weaken a ruling establishment through resignations.
While the overall strength of the Assembly is 30, in recent days four Congress legislators including two ministers – A Namassivyam and Malladi Krishna Rao -- had quit (Namassivayam and another ex-MLA had joined the BJP) and one legislator was disqualified, bringing down the party’s tally to 10 including the Speaker. The
Narayansamy government has the support of three DMK MLAs and an Independent legislator. On the opposition side, the All India NR Congress has seven legislators and the AIADMK four. Add to this the tally of three nominated legislators, all belonging to the BJP. That makes it a 14-14 tie.
Puducherry has a strange
legislative practice in place – the nominated legislators are nominated by the Centre through the Lieutenant Governor – in this case Kiran Bedi, who was the BJP Delhi Chief Ministerial candidate in 2015. And they can vote on any motion moved in the Assembly. Reports suggest Kumar, who resigned on Tuesday, is likely to join the BJP.