Puducherry Floor Test: CM V Narayanasamy loses trust vote in Assembly

New Delhi, Feb 22: Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, who sought a confidence vote for his government, lost the trust vote on Monday. Earlier, the territorial Assembly met for a special session for a floor test of his five-year old government that has been reduced to a minority following resignations by ruling dispensation members.

Moving the motion, the chief minister told the Assembly that his government had the majority. Apparently referring to former Lt Governor Kiran Bedi constantly being at loggerheads with him on administrative matters, he said that he had however, delivered for the union territory, including effectively handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

He lashed out at Bedi, saying she had "conspired" against the government on matters including revenue generation. "Those rejected by people cospired to topple our government but we stayed firm due to our resilience," he said.

"We formed the government with the support of DMK and independent MLAs. After that, we faced various elections. We have won all the by-elections. It is clear that people of Puducherry trust us," CM Narayanasamy said.

According to reports, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy-led government now has 12 MLAs and the opposition's strength stood at 14 in the 33-member House.

Puducherry assembly now has seven vacancies, resulting in an effective strength of 26. The simple majority figure is 14 after Sunday's resignations.

Four Congress MLAs, including former ministers A Namassivayam and Malladi Krishna Rao, quit earlier, while another party legislator was disqualified for anti-party activities last year. The opposition had submitted a petition seeking a floor test to the lieutenant governor (L-G)'s office on February 18.

In the 33-member assembly, 30 are elected seats and three are nominated members belonging to the BJP. Presently, Congress has nine MLAs. These include assembly speaker SP Sivakolundhi, who is not allowed to vote unless there is a tie.