N Rangasamy takes oath as Puducherry Chief Minister

The swearing in of the other ministers belonging to the AINRC and BJP would be held in next few days

All India N R Congress chief N Rangasamy was on Friday sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Puducherry by Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundarajan. Rangasamy will head a coalition government in which the BJP will be part of — a giant leap for the saffron party whose efforts made no headway for years in Southern India except in Karnataka.

On Friday, only Rangasamy was sworn in. The cabinet will be expanded in the next few days with three each from AINRC and BJP taking oath as ministers. Though BJP said its nominee, probably former Congress A Namassivayam, will be the deputy chief minister, Rangasamy was non-committal for now.

At a simple ceremony in the Raj Nivas, Soundararajan administered the oath of office and secrecy to Rangasamy, who has become Chief Minister for the fourth time in two decades. Union Minister of State for Home Kishan Reddy, who represented the BJP at the swearing-in ceremony, said the party nominees will be inducted into the cabinet soon.

Also read: Fourth time lucky, Puducherry CM Rangasamy to head his first coalition govt

The BJP won six out of the nine seats it contested in Puducherry in an alliance with AINRC which emerged victorious in 10 seats. The BJP had tried to convince Rangasamy to allow a BJP MLA head the coalition but the Chief Minister was unwilling to concede. The saffron party, for now, has accepted to be a junior partner.

BJP, which did not have a toehold in Puducherry till about a few years ago, engineered a rebellion within the Congress and poached the previous government's No. 2, Namassivayam, and a few other legislators. With their support, the BJP-AINRC combine successfully destabilised the V Narayanasamy government at the fag end of its tenure.

BJP feels Puducherry will be a springboard for it to make inroads in neighbouring Tamil Nadu. Rangasamy, a former Congressman, was first named as Chief Minister in 2001, and retained power in 2006. However, a banner of revolt by his cabinet ministers ensured that he was shunted out and replaced with a minister in 2008.

After being sidelined for years, he launched AINRC in 2011, and rode to power in just under 50 days of launching his party. In 2016, he lost power to Congress.