Suresh Unnithan
Puducherry: All pre-poll surveys signal a comfortable win in Puducherry for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the April 6 Assembly elections. According to various predictions the Congress- led Secular Democratic Alliance (SDA) is heading for an electoral disaster with the chance of winning just nine out of the total 30 assembly seats while the NDA is projected to get 21.
The Congress Chief Minister Narayanasamy has been largely accused for the pathetic plight of SDA. The pre-poll surveys have depicted Narayanasamy as the least favoured candidate as Chief Minister in the scoring less than 20 per cent against 49.8 per cent for the NDA candidate N Rangasamy.
Thanks to Narayanasamy’s “adamant attitudes and no-compromising approach to co-workers and even cabinet colleagues” the Congress, which had won 15 seats in the 2016 assembly elections, was running into trouble from early January this year. He was accused of “ignoring the state party leadership and also the workers and even insulted them on many occasions.”
The discontent with in the SDA started brewing with Congress MLA E Theeppainjan and former PWD Minister A Namassivayam resigning from the party on January 25. Within a month followed a flood of resignations which rattled the ruling party. Health Minister and MLA from Yanam, Malladi Krishna Rao, quit the cabinet and the party on February 15. Following Rao’s resignation four more Congress MLAs resigned on February 16 and MLA K Lakshminarayanan resigned on February 21. This included John Kumar considered a close confidant of Narayanasamy.
Interestingly, all those resigned from Congress has migrated to BJP, considered a rising star in Puducherry and this was a big setback for the Congress-led SDA which was enjoy full majority in the Puducherry Assembly, with hardly any rumblings within the ruling alliance.With the Congress-led SDA government falling apart in Puducherry and BJP-led NDA emerging a potent force which is projected to win the assembly polls Narayanasamy has fallen from grace within the SDA and the Congress party. The former Puducherry Chief Minister, once a key minister in the UPA cabinet led by Dr Manmohan Singh at the Centre and considered a close confidante of the Gandhis, is out of favor of both the Party and its leadership. Though Narayanasamy is not trying to shift the blame for his “fiasco” on the BJP the Congress neither party nor its alliance partners are willing to buy his justifications for the abrupt downfall. “It was his repeated follies and failures that lead to disgruntlement. He failed to keep the folk together. As a shrewd political party BJP grabbed the opportunity and turned the tide in their favour,” says a senior Congress worker.