The voting in Monday’s Presidential race between NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind and UPA nominee Meira Kumar will bear an unusual significance in local politics here as the ruling Congress-DMK regime now has to contend with the BJP’s recent attempts to force its way into the political landscape of the Union Territory.
Though the Congress-DMK regime enjoys a simple majority in the 30-member House (with 17 MLAs, including two DMK legislators), some hectic backroom manoeuvres during the recent visit of BJP national president Amit Shah has set off speculation about a possible disruption in the political calculus in the near future.
The AINRC, which is the single biggest Opposition party, led by former Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, has eight MLAs and the AIADMK, four, while the sole Left-backed Independent represents Mahe in Kerala.
When Mr. Shah was in town, he had parleys with the AINRC and the AIADMK. Political circles see it as no coincidence that shortly after the BJP master strategist’s visit, the Centre unilaterally exercised powers vested in the government of Union Territories Act, 1963, to have three of its candidates sworn in as nominated MLAs by Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi.
The move drew immediate condemnation from the Congress, evoked a near-total bandh in Puducherry and the filing of a Public Interest Litigation petition in the Madras High Court by K. Lakshminarayanan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister.
While any threat to the Congress-led Government is far-fetched at the moment, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy and his Cabinet colleagues will be keenly tracking the signs of solidarity or lack thereof in the Opposition ranks as voting by secret ballot begins at 10 a.m. on Monday.
The AINRC, with eight legislators and a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) carries a vote value of 836 (the value of vote of each legislator in the Union Territory has been put at 16 and that of the Member of Parliament at 708 as per the population data of 1976), has extended support to the NDA candidate .
The immediate challenge for the AINRC though would be to ensure en bloc voting by its members given the divisions that have surfaced within its legislative wing. At least four legislators are believed to be sour with the top leadership in the party and one of them had left a few red faces by refusing to toe the party line in the Assembly.
Three of these MLAs failed to attend a meeting convened by Mr. Shah and also were not part of the delegation that accompanied Mr. Rangasamy to meet Mr. Kovind in Chennai.
The AIADMK (Amma) unit here with four MLAs and one Rajya Sabha MP is supporting the NDA nominee — a shadow of doubt lingering only over whether one of the MLAs, who is from a minority background, feels comfortable pitching for the NDA.
Ms. Meira Kumar, who had visited the city recently to interact with 15 MLAs of the Congress and two from the DMK, will also draw “issue-based support” from V. Ramachandran, Independent MLA from Mahe.
