Puducherry assembly polls: High-calibre fight in Thattanchavady as CM Rangasamy takes on ex-CM Vaithilingam | India News
New Delhi: Puducherry’s Thatanchabadi constituency will see Congress MP and former chief minister V Vaithilingam take on the incumbent chief minister. N RangasamyThe upcoming assembly elections mark the most high-profile contest.Rangasamy is also the current Thatanchabadi MLA.
Union Territories will hold assembly elections on April 9. Counting of votes will take place on May 4, along with four constituencies – Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal – which will vote at the same time.Rangasamy, a former Congress leader, formed his own party, the All India NR Congress (AINRC), in February 2011. He served as Chief Minister twice as a Congress leader and twice as Founder-President of AINRC.
Rangasamy v. Vaithilingam
Baithilingam is a two-term former chief minister and sitting MP from the union territory’s only Lok Sabha seat, also called Puducherry, which he won in the 2019 general election and retained five years later.Rangasamy is also contesting from the second seat Mangalam.AINRC is contesting the elections in alliance with the BJP and will field candidates in 16 of the 30 constituencies that go to direct polls (the remaining three MLAs are nominated by the central government).Also Read | Puducherry Elections: Names of BJP Candidates for Karaikal South – View Full ListThe BJP will contest the remaining 14 seats, out of which it has allotted two seats each to the AIADMK and Lachia Jannayak Kachi.The Congress and DMK will contest under the same seat-allocation system, with the Congress fielding 16 candidates and the DMK 14 candidates.Also Read | Puducherry Assembly Elections: Seat deadlock ends; Congress gets 16, DMK 14In the 2021 elections, the AINRC-BJP alliance won 16 seats – the exact majority mark – to oust the Congress, which got just two seats, while its ally, the DMK won six. Congress scrapped AINRC in 2011.
