Puducherry political crisis: V Narayanasamy resigns as CM; blames 'BJP govt at Centre', AIADMK for dislodging govt

The Puducherry government led by  Chief Minister V Narayanasamy  collapsed on Monday in the face of its depleted strength of 11 MLAs against the Opposition’s tally of 14. Chief Minister V Narayanasamy submitted his resignation to Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan after walking out of the Assembly in protest ahead of the trust vote. News18 quoted him as saying, “A government elected by the people has been toppled by the BJP, NR Congress and the AIADMK. In the coming elections, the people of Puducherry will teach the Opposition parties a lesson.” Elections to the Puducherry Assembly are expected to be held in April or May this year. FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES ON PUDUCHERRY POLITICAL CRISIS HERE Speaking during the special Puducherry Assembly session called to hold a floor test, the chief minister said the government was formed with support from the DMK and Independent MLAs. “After that, we faced various elections. We have won all the by-elections. It is clear that people of Puducherry trust us,” he said. He went on to say that former L-G Kiran Bedi and the Centre colluded with the Opposition and tried to topple the government. “As our MLAs stayed united, we managed to pull off the last five years. The Centre has betrayed the people of Puducherry by not granting funds we requested,” he said. Though Narayanasamy on Monday moved the motion seeking the confidence vote in the Assembly, he and his ruling side MLAs later walked out before the motion was put for voting. Soundararajan had on Thursday ordered the floor test after the Opposition petitioned her to do so, saying the government has been reduced to minority and it should prove its strength in the Assembly. The crisis in Puducherry began on 25 January after public works department minister A Namassivayam tendered his resignation within hours of being suspended from Congress for ‘anti-party’ activities. Later, MLA E Theepaindan also resigned from his post. Both leaders later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Two more MLAs — Congress member K Lakshminarayanan and DMK’s K Venkatesan — resigned on Sunday, delivering yet another jolt to the Narayanasamy government. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Lakshminarayanan said, “This government led by Narayanasamy has lost majority.” He said he has also resigned from the Congress party. Later, Venkatesan was quoted as saying by PTI that he had quit the post of MLA only and continued to be in the DMK. “… I was not able to meet the needs of the people in my constituency since there was no allocation of funds under the MLA Local Area Development fund,” he said. With inputs from PTI