Chennai: For the first time, the BJP has emerged as a significant player in Puducherry and it is now a partner in the ruling NDA coalition, headed by the AINRC. Before this, the BJP had no footprint in the former French enclave. But, the euphoria seems to have evaporated with the bitter tussle within its ranks to secure ministerial posts. After a hard bargain with the AINRC president and Chief Minister N Rangasamy, the party was apportioned two cabinet slots. But, the saffron party is still undecided on its nominees as there are multiple claimants. The result, even after 50 days have passed since the poll results were out, ministry formation hangs in balance.
Heightening the crisis, supporters of legislator John Kumar, who switched to the saffron camp before the elections, laid a siege to the party office in Puducherry, raised slogans and ransacked the name board. They were pressing for his inclusion in the ministry. Kumar, a former lieutenant of ousted former Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, had claimed that he was assured of being accommodated in the cabinet. Interestingly, his son Vivilaian Richards is also a BJP legislator.
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Earlier, BJP state president V Saminathan asserted that the party legislators were not that keen on power and that cabinet formation was the Chief Minister's prerogative. “How many ministerial berths we get is immaterial. The NDA is committed to the development of Puducherry and we are not power-hungry,” he had told media persons then.
In the bargaining between the allies, Rangasamy had shot down the demand from the BJP for Deputy Chief Minister's post on the ground that the Union Territory had never had such an office. However, he agreed to cede the Speaker's office besides two ministerial berths. He had reportedly made this clear to BJP Puducherry in charge Nirmal Kumar Surana.
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This time around, everything had moved at a snail's pace. The CM, who was covid-infected days before the results, assumed office on May 6 and the legislators took the oath on May 27. The Speaker was sworn in on June 16. Sources in the AINRC maintain that the delay in cabinet formation was primarily due to the BJP's inability to finalise the two ministers from its ranks. “We are waiting for the list for nearly two weeks,” said a party senior.
The Territorial Assembly has three nominated MLAs and the Centre stacking it up with local BJP leaders even before government formation has not gone down well with the AINRC and the Chief Minister. It is widely perceived that the BJP is punching above its weight. Last time too, the Centre had nominated BJP leaders, including those who lost their deposit in the elections, as MLAs without consulting the Chief Minister. And, they played a vital role in dislodging the Congress government.
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Dismissing criticism, the BJP shifts the blame on the Chief Minister for the inordinate delay maintaining that he remains inaccessible on the pretext of recovering from post-covid infection. However, local BJP leaders admitted that the party's insistence on Deputy CM's post had delayed government formation to a certain extent. And they do not deny the mad scramble for ministerial berths within the BJP's ranks.
Though John Kumar had given up his fight for a ministerial post, his banner of revolt had opened up the chinks in the NDA in the Union Territory, known for perennial political instability.
