Amid Congress crisis, New Puducherry Lt Governor orders assembly floor test on Feb 22

Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Thursday ordered assembly floor test on February 22 (Monday) amid crisis in the Congress-led government in the Union Territory. The LG has ordered to conduct the floor test in the legislative assembly by 5 pm.

The crisis-ridden Union Territory's Opposition parties on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to the Lieutenant Governor's office seeking direction to Chief Minister V Narayanaswamy to prove his majority on the floor of the house.

Former Chief minister and leader of the opposition, N Rangasamy, along with AIADMK floor leader A Anbazhagan and BJP floor leader V Saminathan handed over the memorandum signed by 14 MLAs to the governor's office seeking convening of a special assembly session to conduct the trust vote. The move comes at a time when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrived in Puducherry ahead of the elections.

Rangasamy said that the Congress government in Puducherry has been reduced to a minority as their four MLAs have



resigned and the Opposition has 14 MLAs. "Hence, the Congress has lost morally and its right to continue in office and the Chief Minister V. Narayanaswamy should be directed to prove his government's majority".

Rangasamy charged that the Puducherry CM had been non-cooperative for everything and this government had lost all qualities to rule. "He (Narayanaswamy) will never accept his 'faults' or 'inefficiency' but he will blame others...Puducherry is in bad shape and Narayanaswamy failed to fulfil any of his promises," he said.

MLAs of the AINR Congress, AIADMK, and the BJP as well as former PWD Minister A. Namassivayam and other party functionaries accompanied them to Raj Nivas.

The memorandum was submitted to the OSD and additional secretary of the LG as Kiran Bedi has been removed from the position, Anbazhagan said.

With Kiran Bedi relieved as Lt governor, Tamilisai Soundarajan, the Governor of Telangana who has been given additional charge of Puducherry would require to respond.