The BJP has fielded Minister for Home and Education A. Namassivayam in Puducherry for the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April 19.
Representing the Mannadipet Assembly constituency, Mr. Namassivayam wields a considerable clout with the Vanniyar base, and shares familial ties with Puducherry Chief Minister and AINRC supremo N. Rangasamy.
Mr. Namassivayam has tested waters in various political parties, including the DMK, and the Congress for which he became a key player.
He served as the Agriculture Minister in 2002 and as parliamentary secretary to Chief Minister in 2006 in the Congress governments led by Mr. Rangasamy (before he broke ranks and formed the breakaway regional party, the AINRC). He was also the Local Administration Minister when V. Vaithilingam replaced Mr. Rangasamy in 2008.
As Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), he was believed to have been the architect behind the Congress-DMK alliance’s success in the 2016 Assembly elections.
In the race to become Chief Minister in the days that followed, his name, along with that of senior Congressman V. Vaithilingam, was bandied about in political circles as the likely choice for the Chief Minister’s post.
However, as it played out, the Congress high command eventually delegated then AICC general secretary and former Minister of State in the PMO V. Narayanasamy to occupy the coveted chair.
Though the 55-year-old politician with a background in civil engineering appeared to have kept aside bigger aspirations and joined the Narayanasamy Cabinet as PWD Minister, and was considered to rank second in command in the Cabinet, Mr. Namassivayam is said to had grown frustrated with the position.
Matters came to a head a few months before the Assembly elections in January 2021 when Mr. Namassivayam quit as Minister and resigned from the MLA post. The Congress responded by sacking him over “anti-party” activities, and the BJP welcomed him into its waiting arms.
This signalled the first of several body blows to the Congress as it was followed by the exit of a few more senior leaders, and precipitated the collapse of the Narayanasamy government in a trust motion in the Assembly.
In the AINRC-BJP government that came to power in the 2021 Assembly elections, Mr. Namassivayam was allocated the Home portfolio - usually held by the Chief Minister. He was shortly thereafter inducted into the BJP’s national executive, an 80-member decision-making body.
