CM quits as Congress government falls in Puducherry

New Delhi, February 22

The Congress-led coalition government in Puducherry fell on Monday after Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and his four-member Cabinet resigned ahead of voting on the confidence motion in the Assembly.

The ruling alliance had plunged into minority on Sunday after two MLAs (one each of the Congress and the DMK) quit. Even as Speaker VP Sivakolundhu declared the confidence motion defeated today, the CM said the motion was not put to vote and the Speaker’s declaration was “invalid”.

The Congress and the DMK slammed the BJP for “murdering democracy” saying they would seek legal opinion on whether nominated MLAs could vote on a trust vote. Narayanasamy and his Cabinet walked out of the Assembly before the confidence motion was taken up demanding that Speaker bar the three nominated BJP MLAs from voting.

Earlier, the CM accused the BJP and former L-G Kiran Bedi of thwarting development plans for Puducherry and causing the current crisis.

In the 33-member Assembly, the Congress had won 15 seats in 2016 and came to power with the support of three DMK and one Independent member. The seven vacancies (five Congress MLAs and one of DMK resigned while one Congress MLA was disqualified) brought the effective strength of the House to 26. The ruling combine was left with 12 MLAs while the Opposition had 14 (AIADMK 4; All India NR Congress 7 and BJP’s 3 nominated MLAs). The Opposition said it had no plans of staking claim to government formation yet. — TNS