N Rangaswamy stakes claim to form govt in Puducherry

NR Congress chief N Rangaswamy would have been an anxious man on Monday afternoon when the BJP, as expected insisted on one of their own being the CM candidate of Puducherry.

This comes after the saffron party won six of the nine seats it contested while the NR Congress led by former CM Rangaswamy bagged 10 seats pushing their alliance to 16 seats which is the number required for a simple majority.

However, through the election campaign, there was a lurking question about whether the BJP which was piggybacking on Rangaswamy's popularity in the region, would finally endorse him as their CM candidate as the party had maintained a stoic silence on the issue and had said this would be announced after the alliance came to power.


And it came to haunt the NR Congress on Monday, a day after the NDA alliance snatched the only territory in the South that had a Congress-led government. The BJP, with its 6 MLAs, was keen on putting one of its own as the CM. However, Rangaswamy did not cave in. Late evening, Rangaswamy was on his way to meet Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to stake his claim to form the government.

The BJP, with its 6 MLAs, was keen on putting one of its own as the CM. However, Rangaswamy did not cave in.