Puducherry Assembly elections 2021, Yanam constituency profile: In blow to Congress, Malladi Krishna Rao quits as MLA

Yanam is constituency number 30 of the Union Territory of Puducherry. The entire Yanam region, an enclave of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh, constitutes one Assembly constituency. Puducherry health minister and Congress leader Malladi Krishna Rao has registered five successive victories from the Yanam seat. According to The Hindu, Rao entered the fray in 1996 as an Independent candidate from Yanam. He again won the 2001 elections from the Assembly seat as an Independent and contested subsequent elections on a Congress ticket. Electors and turnout in 2016 election As per the Election Commission’s data, there were 36,557 registered electors (17,544 men and 19,013 women) from the constituency for the 2016 Assembly election. The voter turnout in the election was 92.73 percent. Winners of previous elections In 2016, Congress’ Malladi Krishna Rao defeated AINRC’s Tirikoty Bairava Swamy by a margin of 8,754 votes. Rao had emerged victorious in 2011 as well, defeating AIADMK’s Manchala Satya Sai Kumar by a whopping 19,118 votes. In 2006, the Congress leader won against Independent candidate Rakshahariskrishna. Rao garnered 11,763 votes while Rakshahariskrishna polled 5,457 votes. Dealing a blow to the Congress government in the Union Territory, Rao sent his resignation as MLA to the Assembly Speaker VP Sivakolundhu on 15 February. Earlier in January, reports had emerged that Rao has handed in his resignation as minister to Chief Minister V Narayansamy, in line with his plans to quit electoral politics. However, as per news agency PTI, Narayamsamy had  denied the reports as “absolutely incorrect and misleading”. Puducherry will vote in a single-phase election on 6 April while counting of votes will take place on 2 May. The Puducherry Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) has a total number of 30 seats, of which five are reserved for the Scheduled Castes.