Kiran Bedi has been sacked from the LG post amid a political crisis in Puducherry. President Ramanath Kovind has immediately removed the Bedi and handed over the additional charge of Puducherry to the governor of Telangana, Tamilsai Sundararajan. After being removed from the post of Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, Kiran Bedi said – thanks to the Government of India for a lifetime experience as a Lieutenant Governor at Puducherry. Thank you to everyone who worked closely with me. I can say with satisfaction that ‘Team Raj Niwas’ served the public interest diligently during this tenure.
Significantly, Bedi was ousted at a time when the state Congress government lost its majority in the Assembly on Tuesday after resigning from the membership of another MLA in the central region. There are 14 Congress MLAs in the house. The Puducherry assembly elections are due in the next few months.
I thank the Government of India for the lifetime experience of serving as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. Thank you to everyone who worked closely with me. I can say with deep satisfaction that ‘Team Raj Niwas’ has worked diligently for the greater public interest during this tenure: Kiran Bedi pic.twitter.com/wVNmgQzXn9
– ANI (@ANI) February 17, 2021
Oppositions took advantage of this opportunity and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, saying the government was in the minority. Puducherry’s 33-member assembly now has 14 opposition parties. Narayanasamy, however, rejected the demand of the opposition, alleging that his government had a ‘majority’ in the House.
Puducherry Congress MLA A John Kumar resigned from the assembly on Tuesday, becoming the fourth MLA to quit in the last one month. The resignation of Kumar has reduced the number of Congress members, including the Speaker, to 10 members. If its ally, the DMK, has three members, the independent members also support the Narayanasamy government.
The majority is 15 based on the number of effective members in the House. The Puducherry Legislative Assembly elections will be held in April, as the current assembly term ends on 21 June 2021. The resignation of Congress legislators came just a day before party leader Rahul Gandhi began his election campaign.
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