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Thread on Puducherry politics and the significance of Namassivayam's resignation
The biggest mass leader in the history of PY politics is N Rangaswamy, a man who plays by his own rules. In 2008, during his third term as CM, 10 JP got insecure and made him resign.
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The biggest mass leader in the history of PY politics is N Rangaswamy, a man who plays by his own rules. In 2008, during his third term as CM, 10 JP got insecure and made him resign.
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Thereafter, in the subsequent elections of 2011, he formed his own party and stormed back to power. He was seen as completely invincible until the Congress deployed his niece's husband, MLA Namassivayam, to defeat him.
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Namassivayam has been the only politician in PY who has proven to be a match. As PCC president and CM face, he ran a clever campaign in 2016. He got the alliance arithmetic and social engineering right, and proved to be an effective mobilizer of resources.
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Rangaswamy was finally defeated, for the first time after he had taken over as CM two decades earlier. But lo and behold, the Congress Party sidelined Namassivayam immediately, and appointed the old Delhi hand Narayansamy as CM. Namassivayam settled for the PWD Ministry.
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Almost five years later, dissatisfaction with Narayansamy is at an all time high, so much so that his ally the DMK has decided to contest the elections on their own. Rangaswamy has said earlier that he will contest in alliance with the BJP and AIADMK. There's a catch though.
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Namassivayam is not the only one likely to move to the BJP. Several heavyweight Congress MLAs, highly popular in their constituencies if not for the Narayansamy government, will follow suit to avoid anti-incumbency. Rangaswamy will become a junior partner in that case.
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There is speculation that one of the seniormost ministers Malladi Krishna Rao, veteran MLA and popular leader K Lakshminarayan (my MLA), moneybag MLAs John Kumar and Sivakozhundu (who's the speaker) are next in line. Some of them have openly met the BJP leadership recently.
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John Kumar's case is particularly interesting. He won the 2016 elections with the highest margin but was made to vacate the seat for Narayansamy. He got elected from elsewhere, and has since looked after both constituencies. So the incumbent CM might have to change seats.
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