Puducherry: Ramasamy resigns as CM on sour note

Puducherry, Aug 28: Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy, who was described as the 'Puducherry Kamaraj' had a sad end to his tenure as the Chief Minister when the party high command asked him to step down to find a soution to the 'tussle' between him and his cabinet collegues .

A Commerce and Law graduate, Mr Rangasamy's maiden entry into the assembly was not smooth. He was defeated by V Pethaperumal, the then Janata Dal candidate in 1990 at Thattanchavady Constituency.

Mr Rangasamy, however, won the 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006 elections from the same Constituency.

He was the agriculture minister in the Vaithilingam Cabinet from 1991 to 1996 and education minister in the Shanmugham Ministry, which was formed after the collapse of the R V Janakiraman Ministry in 2000.

The PWD Minister in the Shanmugham Cabinet when he formed the ministry a second time in 2001, Mr Rangasamy became the Chief Minister on October 27,2001, following Mr Shanmugham's resignation.

The 58-year-old Rangasamy a bachelor, was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the second sucessive term on May 18,2006.

UNI