Puducherry: Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy tendered his resignation to the Lieutenant Governor on Monday after the Congress government lost its majority in the floor test. After two exit on Sunday, the government's numbers had dropped to 12 MLAs in the assembly where 14 is the majority mark.
Speaking in the assembly, the chief minister blamed former L-G Kiran Bedi for scuttling the work of the government as well as colluding with the opposition to topple the government. Bedi assumed office of Lt Governor on May 29, 2016, and had been at loggerheads with Narayanasamy on various issues.
"As our MLAs stayed united, we managed to pull off the last 5 years. The Centre has betrayed the people of Puducherry by not granting funds we requested," Narayanasamy said. He added, "We formed the government with the support of 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."
The trust vote came a day after one more ruling Congress MLA resigned from his post. K Lakshminarayanan, elected from the Raj Bhavan constituency, tendered his resignation to Assembly Speaker V P Sivakolundhu at the latter's residence. Later, he told reporters that "this government led by Narayanasamy has lost majority." Lakshminarayanan said he has also resigned from the party membership. Following his resignation, the second this week, the Congress' strength further slipped to 13, while the opposition has 14 MLAs in the 33-member house which has five vacancies.
Four Congress MLAs –including ex-ministers A Namassivayam (now in BJP) and Malladi Krishna Rao had quit, while another party legislator was earlier disqualified. Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who was handed over additional charge of Puducherry, had directed Narayanasamy to prove majority by ordering a floor test on February 22.
Kiran Bedi relieved
Earlier, the Centre relieved lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi from administrative responsibilities.
Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundarajan has been given additional charge as the lieutenant governor of the Union territory. The decision to relieve Bedi is the culmination of a long-running feud between her and Narayanasamy.
Bedi’s removal came a few days after a delegation led by Narayanasamy called on President Ram Nath Kovind and submitted a memorandum urging him to recall Bedi. The delegation accused Bedi of acting in a “typical autocratic manner in violation of constitutional provisions and rule of law” and interfering in the day-to-day affairs of the elected government and blocking all welfare and development schemes. Relations between the two had turned so acrimonious that they took their disagreements to public fora on several occasions.
Bedi and the Congress government have been at loggerheads over several issues ever since she assumed office on May 29, 2016. Narayanasamy charged Bedi with failing to re-delegate the enhanced financial powers to the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues even after the home ministry’s directive.
