Four Congress MLAs resigned from the Puducherry government on Tuesday initiating a fresh crisis for the INC administration in the Union Territory which is led by Chief Minister V Narayanasamy. Responding to resignation of the MLAs, CM Narayanasamy has called for an urgent Cabinet meeting.
Earlier on February 15, MLA Malladi Krishna Rao had also resigned from the Congress government. Now, that five MLAs have resigned from the administration within just two days, the Congress-led Puducherry government is pacing towards a big crisis, according to India Today.
John Kumar, a close confidant of Puducherry CM V Narayanasamy, is among the four MLAs who resigned on Tuesday. Kumar resigned from his post ahead of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's visit to the UT. Rahul Gandhi is expected to visit the UT to initiate the INC's campaign for the upcoming elections.
The INC-DMK alliance had a majority in the Puducherry Legislative Assembly with 16 out of 30 seats belonging to them. With the recent string of resignations, the number of seats held by Congress MLAs has now shrunk to below 10. The opposition, on the other hand, has 14 MLAs.
Social Welfare Minister Kandhasamy has released a video in which he states that during the past five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lieutenant -Governor Kiran Bedi had put multiple hurdles in front of the Congress-DMK government in the UT. He also said that legislative assembly election dates are expected to be announced in the next two weeks. He added that the Chief Minister has called for a Cabinet meeting to deliberate on dissolving the government in the UT and then facing elections.
Apart from the 5 MLAs who have quit the INC in the last two days, Former PWD Minister A Namassivayam and Congress MLA E Theeppainjan had resigned on January 25. Earlier in July, N Dhanavelu, an INC member, was disqualified for anti-party activities.
The INC had won 15 seats in the 2016 assembly elections. With these string of resignations, Congress's numbers in the legislative assembly have gone below the required halfway mark.