Puducherry: Chief minister N Rangasamy submitted his resignation to lieutenant governor K Kailashnathan on Thursday. He would be staking claim to form the next govt in the wake of AINRC-led NDA’s victory in the Puducherry assembly election. Rangasamy later told reporters that he will stake a claim to form the govt after a meeting with allies.Rangaswamy, who has been elected for the eighth time, will be sworn in as chief minister of Puducherry for the fifth time. He won both seats he contested. AINRC bagged 12 seats, and allies BJP four, and AIADMK and LJK one each. INDIA bloc faced a drubbing in the polls as it got six seats — DMK five, and Congress one of the 22 it contested. Two newly formed parties opened their accounts this year. TVK, launched by actor Vijay, bagged two seats, while Puducherry-based Neyam Makkal Kazhagam bagged one.Meanwhile, Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee president V Vaithilingam resigned following the debacle. Earlier, a faction of party functionaries and cadres protested in front of the party office, demanding that AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge remove Vaithilingam from his post. In response to the growing dissent over poor performance, Vaithilingam sent his resignation letter to Kharge and leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.Vaithilingam said he is taking moral responsibility for the party’s crushing defeat in the polls. The election was marred by friction within the INDIA bloc, as Congress allied with DMK and fielded “rebel” candidates in an additional six constituencies allocated to alliance partners. This move effectively alienated coalition partners, which observers say led to a massive split in the anti-incumbency vote. “The leadership’s failure to maintain alliance dharma and the decision to field rebels are the main reasons for the party’s near-total wipe-out,” said political observer S Balasubramanian.
