Puducherry Minister Namassivayam resigns after Congress suspension order

Puducherry Congress president AV Subramanian accused Namassivayam of trying to pull some of the other legislators and senior party functionaries away from Congress.

Written by Janardhan Koushik

Chennai | Updated: January 25, 2021 04:39 PM IST

2 min read

A Namassivayam, A Namassivayam resignation

Puducherry Congress president AV Subramanian said Namassivayam was removed from the party with the consent of Congress high command, and those associated with him will also be removed soon. (Facebook/A Namassivayam)

Puducherry Minister for Public works A Namassivayam has tendered his resignation hours after the party suspended him from the primary membership for indulging in “anti-party activities”. He met the Speaker of the legislative assembly VP Sivakozhundu and submitted his resignation from the ministerial and MLA post (from Villianur constituency). Following him, Ossudu constituency MLA E Theepainthan also submitted his resignation.

Puducherry Congress president AV Subramanian accused Namassivayam of trying to pull some of the other legislators and senior party functionaries away from Congress. He added that Namassivayam was removed from the party with the consent of Congress high command, and those associated with him will also be removed soon.

According to sources, Namassivayam has been in talks with the BJP party for over the past couple of months. Two days ago, the minister had conducted a meeting with his followers at a marriage hall in his constituency to discuss his next course of action. He is expected to join BJP in the presence of JP Nadda, who is scheduled to visit Puducherry on January 29.

A Namassivayam met the Speaker of the legislative assembly VP Sivakozhundu and submitted his resignation.

With the resignation of Namassivayam, the strength of the Congress in Puducherry Legislative Assembly has come down to 12. The Congress-DMK alliance had 18 representatives (15- Congress, 3- DMK) in the assembly. With the disqualification of one Congress MLA, their strength reduced to 14. The main opposition party, AINR Congress, has seven representatives and AIADMK four. Three members of the BJP were nominated by the Union Ministry as MLAs in the Puducherry Assembly.

Janardhan Koushik

Janardhan Koushik is Deputy Copy Editor of indianexpress.com. He is a New Media journalist with over five years of reporting experience in the industry. He has a keen interest in politics, sports, films, and other civic issues. Janardhan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication from SRM Arts and Science College and a PG Diploma in New Media from Asian College of Journalism, one of the top ranked journalism schools in India. He started his career with India Today group as a sub-editor as part of the sports team in 2016. He has also a wide experience as a script-writer having worked for short-films, pilot films as well as a radio jockey cum show producer while contributing for an online Tamil FM. As a multilingual journalist, he actively tracks the latest development in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry utiling his well-established networks to contribute significantly to breaking news stories. He has also worked as a sports analyst for Star Sports. ... Read More

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