N R Congress, BJP arrive at agreement on Puducherry Cabinet formation; CM N Rangasamy submits list to Lieutenant Governor

Over 45 days after he was sworn in, Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Wednesday submitted the list of his Cabinet members to Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan. With this, the BJP will be part of a government in the tiny Union Territory for the first time.

Sources said the Cabinet is likely to have six members including the Chief Minister. While the BJP will get two berths, the N R Congress will have three representatives in the Cabinet, the sources added.

From the BJP, former Congress minister A Namasivayam, and Sai Saravanan are likely to be ministers, while another former Congress leader A John Kumar may have to wait for his turn. The BJP took over a week to finalise its representatives in the Cabinet.

With this, the logjam between AINRC and BJP over Cabinet formation has come to an end. The cold war between the two parties led to an inordinate delay in the formation of the Cabinet.

BJP’s “unilateral” decision to nominate three party leaders to the Assembly without consulting him – the appointments were made when the Chief Minister was being treated for Covid-19 at a private hospital in Chennai – is said to be one of the reasons behind Rangasamy’s adamant stand vis-à-vis the saffron party.

The AINRC won 10 seats, while the BJP emerged victorious in six seats and its strength in the Assembly now stands at nine, thanks to the Centre’s power to appoint three nominated members. The DMK won six, Congress two, and Independents six.

The BJP, which lost all seats it contested in the 2016 Assembly polls, allied with AINRC, and AIADMK for the April 6 elections. The party which lacked a toehold in the Union Territory till a few months ago poached a few senior Congress leaders and gave them seats to contest.