Table of Contents
What has happened?
- The Congress-led government in the Union Territory of Puducherry Tuesday saw its strength in the assembly fall below the halfway mark,
- As an MLA quit the party a day ahead of Rahul Gandhi’s visit for the assembly elections campaign.
- Kamaraj Nagar MLA John Kumar is the fourth Congress leader to resign in the past few weeks.
- On Monday, health minister of the union territory, Malladi Krishna Rao, quit the party.
- Two others, A. Namassivayam and E. Theeppainjan, resigned late January and joined the BJP after a mNone of the four MLAs has publicly offered a reason for the resignation.
- A fifth MLA, Dhanavelou, was disqualified for alleged anti-party activities last year. eeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP resident J.P. Nadda.
Strength of Puducherry assembly
- The Congress won 15 seats in the 30-member assembly in the 2016 election, and its strength is now down to 10.
- With allies DMK (3 MLAs) and one Independent, it has 14 MLAs in the House, short of the halfway mark.
- The opposition has as many MLAs — the All India NR Congress has 7, the AIADMK had 4 and the BJP 3. The three BJP MLAs are nominees of the central government.
But why resignation?
- A Congress MLA in Puducherry said Rao’s move had caught them off-guard but they weren’t “entirely surprised by the resignations”.
- “These people may have been wanting to quit for some time now and now wanted to save themselves the embarrassment of participating in Rahul’s campaign drive and quitting after that.”
- Most of the other resignations, the MLA added, were “driven by ambition”.
- He is widely credited for leading the party’s campaign in the union territory, and was expected to become CM, but the post went to Narayanasamy.
- The CM had not even contested the polls, and entered the legislature in a subsequent byelection.
- This, sources said, had led to differences.
Kiran bedi removed
- Kiran Bedi was removed as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry on Tuesday night amid a political turmoil in the Union territory following the resignation of Congress MLAs from the V Narayanasamy government.
- Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan was given additional charge as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.
Not so good relations
- Hours after the President of India removed Kiran Bedi as the Puducherry Lieutenant Governor late Tuesday,
- Chief Minister Velu Narayanasamy said the move came as a “victory” for the people of the Union Territory.
- He further accused the former L-G of running a “parallel government” in Puducherry.
- “The removal of Dr Kiran Bedi was our demand for the last four-and-a-half years and we have been fighting with the government of India.
- We have been raising the issue with the prime minister [Narendra Modi] and the home minister [Amit Shah] and we went to the people. We started many agitations against her.“
- Narayansamy claimed that Bedi had been hindering the development work done by his government and that she was “acting against the Constitution”.
- On February 10, a delegation led by Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy had met President Ram Nath Kovind in Delhi.
- It was during this meet that the delegation submitted a memorandum to the President seeking Puducherry LG Kiran Bedi’s recall, accusing her of interfering in the administration of the union territory.
Q) In case of death of a sitting governor, who among the following will discharge the functions of the governor of that state?
- The President of India
- The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
- The Chief Justice of the High court
- None of the above
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