Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Puducherry is expected to witness the return of a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by N Rangasamy’s All India N.R. Congress (AINRC).
Rangasamy’s AINRC has won 12 seats, while BJP has bagged four seats.
The DMK has won five seats. The AIADMK got one seat and independent candidates bagged 3 seats.
Rangasamy, who has been the Chief Minister, was re-elected from Thattanchavady. Rangasamy is set to serve his fifth term as the Chief Minister. Congress candidate V Vaithilingam finished a distant fourth, polling 2,990 votes. Rangasamy also won the other constituency, Mangalam, in which he contested.
The election witnessed a record voter turnout of 89.87 per cent, the highest-ever for a Puducherry assembly election. The twoway contest pitted NDA against the Congress-DMK alliance, with the fledgling TVK — founded by actor-politician Vijay and which contested all 30 seats — threatening to play spoilsport.
Rangasamy’s return as Chief Minister for the fifth time assumes significance given the NDA’s attempts to consolidate its share in the Union Territory, once a Congress bastion, and the larger South. However, the Union Territory’s long-held demand for statehood, one that Rangasamy himself reiterated, remains unaddressed.
