Puducherry, February 16: Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi was removed from his post on Tuesday night in a sudden development when the central government was witnessing a political crisis following the resignation of Congress MLAs in the V Narayanasamy government.
Removing Kiran Bedi as Lt. Governor of Puducherry is “a victory for the people”, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy told late Tuesday, soon after that Rashtrapati Bhavan removed Ms. Bedi from the post.
The order, which comes as the ruling Congress generates a crisis of numbers, is widely seen as a political move by the BJP to deny their rivals’ primary campaign platform and weaken them before elections in May has gone.
Hours after the fourth Congress leader resigned from the Assembly, Shri Narayanasamy’s government comes to the brink of collapse. However, Mr. Narayanasamy rejected such a thing and insisted: “Our government is not in the minority.”
President Ram Nath Kovind gave the additional charge of the Union Territory to Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundarajan, “until the regular arrangement for the post of Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry is made, he takes charge of his office.”
The Congress government was in a minority in Puducherry before the assembly elections.
The presidential directive has created a political crisis, where the ruling Congress-led government has come into a minority after another MLA left the party on Tuesday. Bedi and Narayasamy have been in loggerheads on many issues.
A retired IPS officer, Bedi was working till late Tuesday and was reviewing the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the Union Territory and issued directions to bring police forces and sanitation workers into the frontline worker category for vaccination. Was doing.
Amid political turmoil, the opposition seized the opportunity and demanded Narayanasamy’s resignation, saying his government was in a minority. Narayanasamy, however, rejected the demand, claiming that his government continued to enjoy a “majority” in the Assembly, which is scheduled for elections in the next few months.
With the resignation of four MLAs, the strength of the Congress in the 33-member Assembly has reduced to 10 including the Speaker. Its affiliate DMK has three members and an independent government also supports the government. The opposition has 14 MLAs.