In this episode of the Lead, get to know who are the personalities of the Puducherry polls, how the alliances stack up and how has the Kiran Bedi- Narayanswamy tussle affected the elections.
Once a French Riviera in the east, the Union Territory of Puducherry hogged the limelight with the LG-Chief minister tussle, a somewhat replica of what had happened in Delhi. And more recently, with the fall of the V Narayanaswamy government by defections, the UT was abuzz with political drama. What does this mean for the Congress and will the BJP unfurl its flag here too?
Puducherry or formerly Pondicherry is a Union Territory of India which has its own Assembly with a strength of 33 members out of which 3 are nominated by the Central government. The UT is not a continuous landmass but has territories elsewhere on the peninsula. In 2016, the Congress-led alliance formed the government under the leadership of V Narayanswamy, whose infamous tussle with first women Lieutenant-Governor Kiran Bedi had been the talk of the town ever since she was deputed to the UT.
Ahmed: Today, we are joined by our special correspondent from Chennai E T B Sivapriyan to tell about the UT and what's happening this year. Hi, Sivapriyan. Welcome to DH Radio.
E T B Sivapriyan: Hi.
Ahmed: With the exodus of the MLAs in Puducherry, how are the alliances placed in the Union Territory?
E T B Sivapriyan: The Congress has seen a lot of exodus in the past two months, a maximum number of people have gone to the BJP and one person has gone to the splinter group called the NR-Congress, which was launched in 2011...