Puducherry: Chief minister N Rangasamy on Thursday said he was accepting the challenge posed by the leader of the opposition R Siva (DMK) and declared that his party, All India N R Congress (AINRC) was ready to boycott the 2026 assembly polls to press its demand of statehood for the Union territory, if DMK too boycotted the election. “AINRC is fully prepared to boycott. Are you? We’ll pass fresh resolution demanding statehood,” he said
Rangasamy who also holds the portfolio of finance, presented an interim budget for 5,396 crore instead of a full-fledged budget due to the ensuing assembly polls. Siva accused the govt of failing on all fronts. He said AINRC came to power promising statehood. Rangasamy promised to take all elected representatives to Delhi to press the Centre to grant statehood for Puducherry, but failed to do so, he added.
