EC recognises PMC as state party

Pondicherry, May 31 : The Election Commission of India has recognised the Puducherry Munnetra Congress(PMC) as a state political party, PMC legislature party leader K Lakshminarayanan said here today.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Lakshminarayanan said the PMC had fulfilled the criteria by securing eight per cent votes and winning three seats out of the nine contested, he said.

He said the Commission had allocated the ''Bell'' symbol to the party.

He said the tie-up with the AIADMK was only for the assembly elections. The party president P Kannan would decide about an alliance to fight the forthcoming local body elections here, he added.

Asked whether, the PMC would continue to oppose Chief Minister N Rangasamy, Mr Lakshminarayanan said the party was fighting for ''peoples issues'' and had no no personal enmity with the Chief Minister.

UNI