New Delhi: The Congress-led government in the Union Territory of Puducherry Tuesday saw its strength in the assembly fall below the halfway mark as an MLA quit the party a day ahead of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s visit for the assembly elections campaign.
Kamaraj Nagar MLA John Kumar is the fourth Congress leader to resign in the past few weeks. On Monday, health minister of the union territory, Malladi Krishna Rao, quit the party.
Two others, A. Namassivayam and E. Theeppainjan, resigned late January and joined the BJP after a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP resident J.P. Nadda.
Former minister of Puducherry Shri A. Namassivayam along with Congress MLA Shri E Theeppainthan, Shri A. Jayakumar and Shri Murugan met Shri @JPNadda and Shri @AmitShah after joining BJP. https://t.co/IBdNT4i1oN pic.twitter.com/EGU5UcNzHU
— BJP Puducherry (@BJP4Puducherry) January 28, 2021
None of the four MLAs has publicly offered a reason for the resignation.
A fifth MLA, N. Dhanavelou, was disqualified for alleged anti-party activities last year.
The Congress won 15 seats in the 30-member assembly in the 2016 election, and its strength is now down to 10. With allies DMK (3 MLAs) and one Independent, it has 14 MLAs in the House, short of the halfway mark.
The opposition has as many MLAs — the All India NR Congress has 7, the AIADMK had 4 and the BJP 3. The three BJP MLAs are nominees of the central government.
Puducherry is headed for assembly elections in April-May, alongside Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Congress sources said Rao’s resignation was a “shocker”, but added that most of the others were driven by “ambition”.
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‘Ambition’
Just last week, Rao had accompanied Puducherry CM V. Narayanasamy to visit President Ram Nath Kovind in Delhi and request the removal of Kiran Bedi as Lieutenant Governor.
Given representation regarding the obstacles that we are facing due to Lt.Governor of Puducherry to his Excellency Sh.Ramnath Kovind ji , President of India. pic.twitter.com/0vCtwUybWD
— Malladi Krishna Rao (@MrMalladi) February 10, 2021
Speaking to ThePrint, a Congress MLA in Puducherry said Rao’s move had caught them off-guard but they weren’t “entirely surprised by the resignations”.
“These people may have been wanting to quit for some time now and now wanted to save themselves the embarrassment of participating in Rahul’s campaign drive and quitting after that,” the Congress MLA said, not wanting to be named.
Most of the other resignations, the MLA added, were “driven by ambition”.
Namassivayam, the MLA pointed out, was president of the Puducherry Congress when the party won the elections in 2016.
He is widely credited for leading the party’s campaign in the union territory, and was expected to become CM, but the post went to Narayanasamy. The CM had not even contested the polls, and entered the legislature in a subsequent byelection. This, sources said, had led to differences.
Then, in March 2020, the MLA said, Namassivayam was removed as Puducherry Congress president.
“This was his tipping point, and he went to the BJP to probably make sure his ambitions are met,” the MLA added.
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Congress as a party requires a re-engineering. The change should start from the party leader and the party’s vision and mission needs to be communicated to the party members at the ground. The ground level members requires proper recognition so that party keeps running. Stronger opposition is key for the country’s development.