PMC to merge with Congress

PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry Munnetra Congress (PMC), which broke away from Congress in 2005, on Saturday decided to merge with its parent party.

Talking to reporters here, PMC founder and former state home minister P Kannan said the party's 90-member executive committee today "unanimously" decided to merge the party with Congress.

The PMC founder said he and his colleagues should not have split the Congress. "It was a hasty decision I took," he said, adding that PMC legislators would not seek berth in the Puducherry government.

With the merger of PMC, the strength of the ruling Congress will rise to 13 in the 30-member Assembly. DMK, which has seven MLAs, and three independents supported the government from outside.

Opposition AIADMK has three members in the assembly, PMK two and CPI and MDMK one each.

Kannan floated PMC in May 2005 after breaking away from Congress. He contested in the 2006 assembly polls from Mudaliarpet constituency and lost to DMK's M A S Subramanian.