President’s Rule or new govt in Puducherry?

Puducherry may go under President’s Rule after CM V. Narayanasamy submitted his resignation to Lt. Gov. Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan at Raj Bhavan. Narayanasamy left the Assembly after failing to prove majority in the floor test on Monday. Puducherry was scheduled to hold its Assembly elections later this year along with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam.

Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule for the Assembly elections shortly. Once the dates are announced model code of conduct will come into force. Last week, EC announced that polls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will be held simultaneously.

But before that Lt. Gov. Soundararajan has two options: either to invite the largest coalition to form the govt. or to recommend the dissolution of the house and recommend President’s rule.

Most of the MLAs that resigned Congress have already joined BJP including A Namassivayam, former PWD Minister and E Theeppainthan, former MLA. The other MLAs who resigned were Malladi Krishna Rao, former health and family welfare minister, A John Kumar and K Lakshminarayan.

K Lakshminarayan, a Congress veteran felt that he was not given due recognition by the party in both the organisation and administration. On the question of joining other party he said,” I will be joining as per decision of people of my constituency.’’

The end of this crisis is yet to unfold.