Chennai: Faced with rising desertions from its ranks, the Congress government in Puducherry Union Territory is tottering at the fag end of its tenure. On Sunday, a day ahead of the floor test, it had lost two more legislators, one from the Congress and the other from its ally, the DMK, who tendered their resignations to the Speaker. The political crisis in the former French enclave is getting murkier with each passing day.
Taking the Congress establishment by shock, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy's Parliamentary Secretary K Lakshminarayanan and DMK legislator, K Venkatesan, submitted their resignations to the Speaker one after the other on Sunday. With the total number of legislators who have quit has come to six, the government is in a precarious position. Some of them have either joined the BJP or were waiting to jump into the saffron bandwagon.
Though the central government had shunted out Kiran Bedi from the Raj Bhavan, the troubles for the Narayanaswamy government have not come to an end. Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan holding additional charge of Puducherry is holding the fort and has directed the government to prove the majority in the Assembly on Monday (February 22). It is going to be an uphill task for the Congress-led coalition government to prove its majority. Adding to the shock is the resignation of the DMK MLA, which was an unexpected development.
Political turmoil in the Union Territory (UT) took a dangerous turn after the ruling party lost five MLAs including two ministers since last week, reducing the government to a minority in the 33-member House. Now, with two more desertions, the numbers stand at 12:14 in the house.
While the BJP is burning the midnight oil to work out a political strategy for toppling the Congress-led-government in the poll-bound UT, the Congress and alliance partner, DMK, making frantic efforts to save the government.
Sources said "Chances remain high for Speaker to disqualify two AIADMK MLAs, who along with the NR-Congress, had attempted to poach Congress MLAs earlier. The Congress legislators had submitted evidence for the same to the Speaker." Under such circumstances, it would add a shot in the arm for Congress to prove its majority and continue till the elections, the sources added.
However, what threatens the ruling Congress is the three nominated MLAs, who are from the BJP, voting against the government. "In this context, the ball is in the Speaker's court, as he has the right to disallow nominated MLAs from casting their votes during the trust vote. However, this can lead to pandemonium among the Opposition," said a second-rung leader of Congress, exuding confidence that Congress will retain its power.
Meanwhile, there are also reports of the Speaker reportedly engaged in backchannel communication with the BJP high command.
But, the BJP attempting to carve out a political space in the UT has rattled the AIADMK and the NR-Congress as well as the DMK who are wary of a new entrant. Though the local AIADMK and the NR-Congress have teamed up with the BJP to see Narayanaswamy out, they are shy of forging an electoral pact with the saffron party as of now.
According to analysts, even if 'operation lotus' succeeds, it might not be of great advantage to the BJP since the party has very little presence in the UT.
"Ever since BJP appointed Kiran Bedi as the LG, Puducherry has been witnessing political tussles. Now, it has reached a crescendo. As far as the trust vote is concerned, it is a close race for Congress. If two to three MLAs from the opposition parties abstain from the confidence vote, Congress could possibly salvage the government. But, the rising tide of desertions leaves little hope for that to happen. Anyway, we have to wait and watch," explained senior journalist, G Babu Jayakumar.
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