Thirty assembly seats, two alliances, and a chief ministerial candidate who sips his morning tea at a roadside kiosk.
Poll digest
PONDICHERRY: Thirty assembly seats, two alliances, and a chief ministerial candidate who sips his morning tea at a roadside kiosk. Everything about Pondicherry polls appears simple, except for electoral majority. The formations are virtually the same as in Tamil Nadu: Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) comprising the DMK, Congress, PMK and CPI taking on the Democratic People’s Front (DPF) of the AIADMK, MDMK and DPI, with the local addition of Puduchery Munnetra Congress (PMC), a splinter group of Congress.
The CPI (M), a constituent of the DPA in TN, is contesting the two seats in Mahe (because of the region’s proximity to Kerala), against the Congress. Given that Pondicherry has remained a Congress pocket burrow since 1963, the Tamil Nadu leviathans — DMK and AIADMK — are not staking a claim for chief ministership.
While Congress Chief Minister N Rangasamy is the DPA’s mascot in Pondicherry, the DPF is projecting PMC leader P Kannan. Electoral arithmetic is in favour of the DPA.
While the DMK has a good vote base, PMK will help attract Vanniyars, who constitute 20 per cent of the electorate. Contesting only 16 seats — the cut-off for simple majority — the Congress cannot form a government on its own.
A coalition government looks inevitable even if the rival front manages a majority. The AIADMK is contesting 16 seats and the PMC 10. Rangasamy’s campaign is simple. With a dozen supporters in tow, he goes door-to-door in his constituency of Thattanchavady.
“People are happy with my government’s housing scheme. Water supply has improved. A lot more needs to be done,” he says.
“He has done nothing,” counters K Lakshminarayanan, former tourism minister and PMC candidate for Cassicade. “Pondicherry is not in the map of software and manufacturing industries.”
Besides the PMC’s pockets of influence, what worries the Congress is the presence of rebels in the fray. Upset over the party allotting the seat to Malladi Krishna Rao, who got elected last time as an Independent, Congress rebel Raksha Harikrishna is contesting as an Independent from Yanam.
At a glance
Lawspet
Biggest constituency with 51,187 voters
Raj Bhavan Smallest constituency with 5,091 voters
5,000 Indian origin French passport holders
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