Puducherry assembly polls: Parties race to finalise seat-sharing as nominations open Monday

With the nominations for the April 9 assembly elections in Puducherry to begin on Monday, political parties in the tiny Union Territory have little time to finalise seat-sharing arrangement with their alliance partners and decide candidates.

Elections to the 30-member Puducherry assembly will be held on April 9, probably for the first time delinking from the elections in Tamil Nadu.

As many as 9.44 lakh electorate will decide whether to vote the AINRC-BJP government led by Chief Minister N Rangaswamy for a second time, or elect the Opposition Congress-DMK combine, or cast their ballots in favour of new comer Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) of actor Vijay, which is likely to field candidates in all 30 constituencies.

While the AINRC-BJP combine has concluded seat-sharing negotiations – the N R Congress will contest 16 seats and the BJP and AIADMK will contest in 14 seats – the Congress and DMK are yet to finalise their arrangement due to persisting differences.

The Congress wants to maintain the leadership role in the UT by leading the alliance, while the DMK says the issue should be settled after the elections – in the 2021 polls, the Congress contested in 14 seats and the DMK in 13 seats.

Congress wants to contest in 18 seats, but the DMK doesn’t agree to it by pointing to the 2021 strike rate – the regional party won six seats while the national party managed to win only two seats.

“We want the pre-2021 scenario to be restored wherein the Congress contested more seats and led the government. We are hopeful of resolving the differences in the next few days,” a senior Congress leader told DH.

However, the DMK feels the party has been growing from strength to strength in Puducherry and this should reflect in the number of seats allotted to the party. “The first round of formal talks has happened, and we hope to arrive at the numbers soon,” a DMK leader said.

The ruling alliance believes the cash transfers to women will help them come back to power while the opposition says the anti-incumbency against Rangaswamy government will bring them back to the driving seat.

In the ruling alliance, the BJP will contest about 10 seats while allotting the remaining four to AIADMK and other smaller parties, while the AINRC will contest 16 seats.

Vijay’s TVK, which has been allotted Whistle symbol like in Tamil Nadu, hopes to make inroads into the UT but the party is unlikely to project anyone as the Chief Ministerial candidate.

TVK plans to field candidates in all 30 constituencies – Vijay had visited Puducherry in November as part of his campaign.