Narayanasamy finds it tough in Puducherry

V Narayanasamy, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, is under severe pressure to retain the lone Puducherry Lok Sabha seat where he is facing a tough multi-conered contest.

Narayanasamy, contesting on a Congress ticket, and his party is going it alone in the polls in this Union Territory, as in Tamil Nadu. In 2009, the Congress had allied with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to win the seat by a whopping margin of 300,000 votes.

The other candidates in the fray are R Radhakrishan of the ruling All India NR Congress (AINRC), R K R Anandharaman of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK),  former MLA M V Omalingam of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and A M H Nazeem of the DMK, a sitting legislator. Omalingam and Nazeem are from Karaikal.

Interestingly, the political combinations and alliances here are marginally different as compared to the scenario in neighbouring Tamil Nadu where the BJP has formed a rainbow alliance with Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and others. Here, the BJP is supporting the AINRC candidate while the DMDK and MDMK are supporting the PMK candidate.

The PMK was the runner-up here in 2009 securing around 2.8 lakh votes. The DMDK had then got around 53,000 votes by itself.

AINRC headed by Chief Minister N Rangaswamy is putting in all efforts to secure a victory for Radhakrishnan with a campaign that has touched every nook and corner in Puducherry.

"The UPA government at the Centre has not provided the required funds for Puducherry even at the time of calamity", Rangaswamy said during an election rally. For the AINRC, this is the first parliamentary poll since it was formed in 2011 and it will be interesting to see whether the party would be successful in its debut.

Narayanasamy alleged that though the Centre has released sufficient funds for Puducherry, the money is not being properly used by the Puducherry government.