Puducherry govt in crisis as 4th Congress MLA quits

Puducherry: Just a day before Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's visit to Puducherry to launch the party's campaign for the elections due by May, the fourth legislator of his party resigned throwing the Congress government headed by Narayanasamy in the Union Territory into a fresh crisis on Tuesday.

In a late night development, Kiran Bedi has been removed as Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry, Rashtrapati Bhavan said. Ms Bedi's removal comes with just weeks to go for Assembly polls and is being widely seen as a political move on the part of the BJP.

Puducherry chief minister Narayanswamy's close aide A. John Kumar who was elected to Puducherry Assembly from Kamaraj Nagar constituency in 2019 bypolls has resigned giving a jolt to the Congress party in the Union Territory.

His resignation has come at time just a day ahead of Rahul Gandhi's visit to the UT where he is expected to kickstart the party's campaign for the upcoming election.

While other Congress MLAs Malladi Krishna Rao quit on February 15, former PWD Minister A. Namassivayamy and E. Theeppainjan also resigned on January 25. N. Dhanavelu, a Congress member, was disqualified in July last year for alleged anti-party activities.

With back-to-back resignations, Congress's numbers plummeted to way below the required halfway mark and headed towards crisis.

Congress and DMK had a combined strength of 16 MLAs in the 30-member Puducherry assembly. The resignations have taken the Congress-led government to below 10 and the Opposition now has 14 MLAs.