Puducherry crisis deepens after two MLAs quit

A legislator every from the Congress and the DMK resigned from their posts on Sunday, leaving the Narayanasamy-led Puducherry authorities greedy at straws forward of Monday’s belief vote within the Assembly.

Shortly after K. Lakshminarayanan, Congress legislator representing Raj Bhavan and Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister, submitted his resignation to Speaker V.P. Sivakolundhu at his residence, K. Venkatesan, representing Thattanchavady, grew to become the primary legislator from the ruling social gathering’s ally, the DMK, to quit his put up.

In complete, six MLAs, together with 5 from the Congress, have quit, whereas a legislator from the nationwide social gathering was disqualified earlier.

The resignations have introduced down the House energy to 26, with the ruling mix — the Congress (9), the DMK (2) and an Independent — having solely 12 legislators. The Speaker, from the Congress, can vote in a ground take a look at provided that there’s a tie.

In the Opposition, the AINRC has seven legislators, the AIADMK 4 and the BJP three (all nominated MLAs).

‘No impact on floor test’

After tendering his resignation, Mr. Lakshminarayanan stated his transfer would don’t have any influence on the ground take a look at, as the federal government had already been diminished to a minority. He stated he resigned as a result of he had not been given due significance within the ruling social gathering.

He hinted that different events had approached him, however he was but to take a name.

In the house of a month, Ministers A. Namassivayam (who joined the BJP) and Malladi Krishna Rao and legislators Theepainthan, A. John Kumar and Lakshminarayanan quit their posts. Last yr, the Congress suspended N. Dhanavelou for anti-party actions.

As a results of Sunday’s developments, the ruling dispensation’s place within the House has turn into all of the extra susceptible. A defeat within the ground take a look at is now a certainty, until the votes of the three BJP nominated MLAs in a belief movement are disallowed on technical grounds, as is being demanded by the Congress.

The Chief Minister earlier claimed that the three nominated MLAs couldn’t be thought-about as BJP members.

Though the three legislators — V. Saminathan, K.G. Shankar and S. Selvaganapathy — had earlier submitted a request to then Speaker V. Vaithilingam to recognise them as BJP members, no resolution was taken on the matter. Following the loss of life of Mr. Shankar, T. Vikraman was sworn in as a nominated MLA, and he, together with the opposite two legislators, was not recognised as a BJP member within the Assembly, Mr. Narayanasamy contended.

The Chief Minister stated that for recognising a nominated MLA as a celebration member, he/she must signal a number of papers. But no papers had been signed by the three. If a nominated member needed to hitch a celebration, he/she ought to accomplish that inside six months of his/her appointment, he famous.