In a sudden development, the Centre on Tuesday night removed Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi from her post amid political turmoil following the resignation of Congress MLAs from the V Narayanasamy Government.
On Tuesday, the Narayanasamy Government lost its majority in the legislative Assembly after party MLA A John Kumar tendered his resignation to Speaker VP Sivakolunthu.
Bedi and Narayasamy have been at loggerheads over a range of issues.
A brief communique issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesman Ajay Kumar Singh said the President has directed that Bedi “shall cease to hold the office of the Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry”.
President Ram Nath Kovind gave the additional charge of the union territory to Telengana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan “with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office, until regular arrangements for the office of Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry are made”.
The Opposition has demanded the resignation of Narayanasamy, saying his Government is in minority. However, Narayanasamy rejected the demand, claiming that his Government continued to enjoy “‘majority” in the Assembly, which is set to go for polls in the next few months.
With resignations of four MLAs — two during the last two days — the strength of the Congress in the 33-member Assembly which includes three nominated MLAs has been reduced to 10 where the strength of the Assembly is 28.
Its ally DMK has three members and an independent also supports the Government. The Opposition has 14 MLAs.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is set to launch the Assembly poll campaign of the Congress Government in the union territory on Wednesday.
With the latest development, both the ruling Congress-DMK alliance and AIADMK-BJP alliance have 14 MLAs each. The Opposition comprises three nominated MLAs of the BJP, seven MLAs of NR Congress, and four of AIADMK.
Speculation is rife about Kumar quitting the ruling coalition following his recent meetings with BJP leaders in the national Capital a few days ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
The exits came as an embarrassment for the grand old party as Rahul has scheduled visit to Puducherry on Wednesday to draw up an election strategy, his first visit since to the UT since the party came to power.
Kumar was considered close to Narayanasamy. He had won the 2016 Assembly polls from Nellithope constituency and vacated the seat for Narayanasamy. Kumar, later, won the Kamaraj Nagar byelection in 2019.
Kumar’s resignation comes a day after former health minister Malladi Krishna Rao, who quit the Cabinet earlier, posted his resignation letter on Twitter.
AICC sources said the there will be no imminent dangers to the Naranswamy Government and that efforts are on to rope in faction to provide stability to the Government. “BJP politics is just to go overboard the people’s mandate and they have made a mockery of the system. Now when polls are round the corner the dirty games of breaking parties and horse trading has begun. We will sail through,” said AICC leader.
The grand old party has traditionally enjoyed a strong grip on Puducherry but this time round, it has faced rumblings over Narayanasamy, seen to have been para-dropped after the 2016 election. Leaders who have walked out of the party had been resentful of his style of functioning and his endless feud with Bedi.
AICC sources said with so much factionalism Narayanasamy is unlikely to be the face of the party in the coming elections.