Puducherry assembly elections 2021: NDA will 'dismantle' Puducherry's separate status, says CM

Puducherry, Dec 29: Chief Minister V Narayanasamy has claimed that the NDA government at the Centre will dismantle the separate status of Puducherry and merge it with neighbouring states, even as he asserted that his party workers will not remain silent and sacrifice their lives to protect it.

Narayanasamy said the Centre had already reduced Jammu and Kashmir from being a state to a Union Territory and asked the people to ensure that the Congress-led alliance was elected to power in the 2021 Assembly polls also.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is turning his eyes towards Puducherry and would dismantle the separate status of Puducherry and merge it with neighbouring states," Narayanasamy claimed, addressing the 136th foundation day celebrations of the Congress.

Puducherry would face a situation of being deprived of its separate status as a Union Territory and there is need for caution and care on the part of party workers and people in general, he said.

"We will not remain silent spectators and would even sacrifice our lives to protect the separate status of Puducherry," he said.

Party workers should put in hard work to ensure that Congress-headed alliance is elected again to rule the Union Territory, Mr Narayanasamy said.

On the Prime Minister's recent barb that without holding civic polls in Puducherry, the Congress was preaching him democracy, Mr Narayanasamy again alleged Lt Governor Kiran Bedi was blocking initiatives aimed at elections.