DEEP CRISIS AS TWO MORE QUIT IN PONDY

Two more MLAs – one each from the ruling Congress and its ally DMK – resigned on Sunday ahead of the trust vote in Puducherr y Assembly, reducing the Narayansamy Government to a minority. In all, six MLAs – five from the Congress, including two ministers – have quit in under a month and one Congress legislator was disqualified last year. Consequently, the strength of the House has dminished to 26. Hours before Narayansamy moves the Motion of Confidence in the Assembly to take a floor test on Monday, as mandated by Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, the Congress (9), DMK (2) and Independent (1) were two short of the combined Opposition numbers of 14. While the AINRC had seven legislators, the AIADMK had four and BJP had three nominated legislators. From the Congress camp, the effective number of legislators who would vote would be 11 as the Speaker can vote only in case of a tie.

While the possibility of the Narayanasamy Government sur viving is almost nil, the Congress has questioned the classification of the three nominated legislators as belonging to the BJP. “They never signed any papers af ter their election to say that they belonged to BJP. Therefore, they cannot be classified as BJP members,” the Chief Minister has argued. But with numbers stacked up against him, it is unlikely Narayanasamy may continue.

At a time the ruling TMC is planning to take out protest rallies across the state demanding immediate reduction of fuel prices during PM Modi’s visit to the state on Februar y 22, the TMC government has decided to deduct rupee one from the tax charged by the state government from Februar y 22 midnight. Addressing a press conference, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra said that from Februar y 22 midnight, the ruling Trinamool Congress will reduce rupee one from the tax charged by the state government. “The price of petrol in Kolkata is Rs 91.77 per litre. The TMC government will reduce one rupee to give some respite to the people from the price hike on petroleum products each day,” mentioned Mitra.