Puducherry MLA John Kumar in Delhi to press BJP for ‘promised’ minister berth

John Kumar's supporters attacked the BJP office in Puducherry a few days ago.

BJP MLA A John Kumar.

Two days after A John Kumar’s supporters attacked the BJP office in Puducherry as they came to know he was not considered for a cabinet position in the AINRC-led government, he has now reached Delhi to knock on the doors of senior BJP leaders to try his luck.

In the 2021 Puducherry assembly election, John Kumar and his son Richard won from Kamraj Nagar and Nellithope constituency respectively. John Kumar, who had been with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Congress, said he joined BJP after he was promised a cabinet berth.

However, the BJP instead chose Oussudu MLA Sai J Saravanakumar for the cabinet position.

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“In Puducherry, for the first time, six BJP candidates have won in an assembly election. I was told I would be made a minister on the eve of the results. Now, suddenly I discover that I wouldn’t be getting the post,” John Kumar told indianexpress.com

He further added that he was in no way connected to the incident which damaged the BJP office and said he won’t leave the party. “I will never leave BJP even if I don’t get the cabinet position. Only BJP can bring developments in Puducherry,” he said.

On Monday, John Kumar’s supporters met at the Nellithope church for mass prayer and lit candles for him.

Meanwhile, the uncertainly over the Puducherry cabinet continues even after 50 days since the results were announced on May 2. N Rangaswamy, the leader of All India NR Congress (AINRC), was sworn in as the chief minister of the union territory but a consensus on cabinet positions with ally BJP has not yet been reached.

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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