Riding an anti-incumbency tide, the Congress-DMK alliance has swept to power in the Union Territory of Puducherry. For the Congress, the results mark a triumphant return to power after it was humbled in its bastion by the break-away All India NR Congress led by N. Rangasamy five years ago, and provide small solace in otherwise bleak electoral scenario at the national level.
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The Congress, which contested in 21 seats, emerged victorious in 15 and its ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which fielded candidates in nine seats, notched up wins in two seats to stitch together a comfortable majority of 17 in the 30-member Puducherry Assembly. Unlike in 2011, this time, the AINRC and the AIADMK went solo in all 30 seats. While the AINRC won eight, the AIADMK ended with four seats indicating that the pro-Jayalalithaa wave in neighbouring Tamil Nadu did not have much of an influence here. In fact, compared to its 2011 performance when it allied with the AINRC and sent five MLAs to the House, the AIADMK is less by one legislator after this election—it lost Manavely, Nettapakkam and Nellithope while it gained Karaikal South and Muthialpet. None of the other parties in the fray including the BJP, PMK or the umbrella alliance of the PWF made an impact in the elections and many of their candidates forfeited deposits. While AINRC president and Chief Minister N. Rangasamy won in Indira Nagar though by a margin of 3000 odd votes which was much lesser than his thumping 2011 win by 9,700 votes, prominent Ministers in the Rangasamy Cabinet such as P. Rajavelu, N.G. Panneerselvam, T. Thiagarajan, P.R. Siva and the Speaker V. Sabapathy alias Kothandaraman suffered defeat.
The lowest margin of just 20 votes was recorded in the Karaikal South constituency