Cracking the whip too late, the Congress on Friday suspended from the party six of its candidates who had refused to withdraw their nominations for the election to the Puducherry Territorial Assembly, leaving the INDIA bloc, comprising the DMK, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and the CPI, in total disarray.
Congress party symbol
Cracking the whip too late, the Congress on Friday suspended from the party six of its candidates who had refused to withdraw their nominations for the election to the Puducherry Territorial Assembly, leaving the INDIA bloc, comprising the DMK, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and the CPI, in total disarray.
The six candidates have failed to heed the party’s directive to withdraw their papers yesterday, the last day for withdrawal, to ensure that the allies were not contesting against each other in the constituencies and save the seat-sharing pact inked at the eleventh hour. However, this comes too late in the day as the party had failed to intervene earlier.
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Polling is scheduled for the 30-member Assembly of the former French enclave, comprising Mahe and Yanam, on April 9.
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Both the Congress and the DMK were caught off guard since nominations commenced the very next day the election schedule was announced, leaving little time for the parties to complete the seat-sharing exercise. An agreement was reached only on the last day for filing of nominations. Despite the agreement of 16 seats for the Congress, 12 for the DMK and one for the VCK, there was disagreement over the constituencies. Hence, ahead of finalising them, Congress and DMK asked their ticket aspirants to file their papers so that withdrawals could be made later on.
With confusion persisting and the Congress failing to step in on time, the DMK threatened that failure of the Congress candidates stepping out of the contest would force the Dravidian major to adopt the same by contesting against the 28 seats allotted to the Congress in Tamil Nadu. VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan, MP, announced candidates for three constituencies while extending support to the alliance in other seats.
Left in the cold, the Left parties have squarely blamed both the Congress and the DMK for the current state of affairs in Puducherry INDIA Bloc. CPI(M) leader K Balakrishnan told the media that the party would contest two seats in Puducherry and support an independent in Mahe, an enclave of the Union Territory in Kerala. CPI state secretary AM Saleem in a separate press conference had announced that the party was entering the fray in one seat while extending support to the CPI(M) in other seats.
Turning into a firefighting mode, the PCC announced its nominees for the 16 seats and suspended the six defiant candidates. But they have been provided the party’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ form, making them the official candidates. “The party is suspending the candidates contesting against the DMK and VCK,” PCC president V Vaithilingam, MP, who is also in the fray, told reporters in Puducherry.
Despite governance deficit and run-ins with the Lt Governor Kailash Nathan, the NDA, headed by the AINRC of Chief Minister N Rangasamy hopes to reap a good electoral dividend from the recent cash dole the government has given and the chaos in the opposition camp.
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