Puducherry Congress government's numbers shrink to 11 as 2 more MLAs quit day before floor test
The resignation by Congress MLA K Lakshminarayanan and DMK legislator Venkatesan further reduced the strength of the ruling alliance to 11, while the opposition has 14 MLAs in the 33-member assembly, which has seven vacancies.
FollowPuducherry: Two more MLAs - one from the Congress and the other from its partner DMK - have resigned in Puducherry a day before a test of strength after the ruling party no longer has a majority.
The resignation by Congress MLA K Lakshminarayanan and DMK legislator Venkatesan further reduced the strength of the ruling alliance to 11, while the opposition has 14 MLAs in the 33-member assembly, which has seven vacancies.
Lakshminarayanan resigned from his post as MLA and quit the Congress, stating that he was disrespected in the party and the Opposition was welcoming him. “The government is not failing because of my resignation. It has already lost its majority,” he told reporters on Sunday.
Four Congress MLAs – including former ministers A Namassivayam and Malladi Krishna Rao – quit earlier, while another party legislator was disqualified for anti-party activities last year.
Later, Venkatesan told the media that he had quit the post of MLA only and continued to be in the DMK.
"... I was not able to meet the needs of the people in my constituency since there was no allocation of funds under the MLA Local Area Development fund," he said.
Four Congress MLAs--including ex-ministers A Namassivayam (now in BJP) and Malladi Krishna Rao had quit, while another party legislator was earlier disqualified.
Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan called the floor test on Monday citing the opposition's stand that the ruling party no longer has a majority.
The voting will take place by a show of hands. Even if all ruling MLAs are present, the Congress-led government will fall short of the simple majority mark, with 11 votes.
