Congress govt in Pondicherry falls

Pondicherry CM V Narayanasamy hands over his resignation letter to Lt Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday. PIC/PTI

The Congress government in Pondicherry fell on Monday after Chief Minister V Narayanasamy resigned ahead of the confidence vote in the Assembly with the coalition ministry reduced to a minority due to a spate of resignations of party MLAs and a DMK legislator recently.

Narayanasamy met Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and submitted the resignation of his four-member cabinet, ahead of the Assembly elections due in April-May.

With the exit of the Congress government in Pondicherry, Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are the only three states where the party is in power on its own. Holding that Speaker V P Sivakolundhu did not put to vote the motion moved by him for a confidence vote, the Congress veteran said the former's ruling that it stood defeated was "incorrect and invalid."

Legal experts would be consulted on the matter, he said while dubbing the turn of events, surrounding the issue of voting rights of nominated members, BJP in this case, as a "murder of democracy." DMK chief M K Stalin slammed the opposition for the fall of the government and hailed Narayanasamy for "upholding democracy."

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