CM N Rangasamy Wins Thattanchavady, NDA Leads in Puducherry Assembly Polls

AINRC won four seats and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won one after the seventh round of vote counting at 1:00 pm on Monday, as per the EC.

Rangasamy got a total of 10024 votes and secured victory, while his nearest competitor, E Vinayagam of Neyam Makkal Kazhagam, managed 5,583 votes amid the state assembly election, which concluded on April 9.

Independent candidate K. Sethu (Sethuselvam) received 3,984 votes, finishing 6,040 votes short of the winner.

Veteran leader Ve Vaithilingam of the Indian National Congress secured 2,990 votes, trailing the winner by 7,034 votes.

N Rangasamy is a veteran political leader in Puducherry and has been serving as Chief Minister of the Union Territory since May 2021.

He has held the Chief Minister's post on multiple occasions earlier, first from 2001 to 2008, and again from 2011 to 2016. In 2011, he founded the All India N.R. Congress after breaking away from the Indian National Congress.

His political journey spans several decades of shifting electoral trends in Puducherry. In the 1970s, leaders such as V. Pethaperumal of the Indian National Congress were influential, while the 1977 elections saw the rise of the Janata Party. During the 1980s and 1990s, parties like the Janata Dal played a role, and Rangasamy himself emerged as an Indian National Congress representative by 1991.

The political scene continued to evolve through the 1996, 2001, and 2006 elections. In 2011, AINRC's presence strengthened under leaders like Ashok Anand. Later, a 2019 by-election was won by K. Venkatesan of the DMK, before Rangasamy returned to power in 2021 under the AINRC banner, marking another shift in Puducherry's political landscape.

Puducherry is expected to witness the return of a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by N Rangaswamy, as early leads from the Election Commission showed the alliance leading on 11 seats in the 30-member Legislative Assembly.

As per the poll body's latest data, the All India NR Congress (AINRC) is leading on 9 seats, while its NDA ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is ahead on 2 seats. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is leading in 1 seat.

All India NR Congress (AINRC) is leading on 9 seats, among them N Rangasamy from Thattanchavady. Other candidates include VP Sivakolundhu, Vaiyapuri Manikandan, C. Aiyappan (also known as Mouttayappan), E Mohandoss, P Rajavelu, P. R. N. Thirumurugan, and Malladi Krishna Rao.

On the other hand, the Indian National Congress is leading on 1 seat, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is ahead on 2 seats.

The NDA, led by AINRC under N Rangaswamy, along with the BJP, is projected to secure between 16 and 20 seats as per exit polls. Key constituents of the alliance include AINRC, BJP, AIADMK, and Latchiya Jananayaga Katchi (LJK).

In their projections via exit polls, the pollsters on Wednesday projected the All India NR Congress-led (AINRC) Nationalist Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning Puducherry in the 2026 Assembly elections.

The exit poll by People Pulse has projected 16-19 Assembly seats in the NDA's corner, while placing Congress and allies with 10 to 12 seats of the total 30 Assembly seats in the Union Territory.

In Puducherry, the contest involved the NDA, which includes the AINRC, the BJP and the Congress-DMK alliance. Actor Vijay's TVK had also sought to make it triangular.

The electoral contest in Puducherry primarily featured the NDA and the Congress-DMK alliance, though actor Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) also attempted to make the contest triangular. TVK contested in alliance with Naam Tamilar Katchi (PNMK), alongside other parties such as PMK, NTK, and CPI(M).

Seat-sharing arrangements saw the NDA partners dividing constituencies with AINRC contesting 16 seats, BJP 10 seats, and AIADMK and LJK contesting two seats each.

On the other side, the INDIA bloc featured the Congress contesting 16 seats and the DMK contesting 14. VCK, despite being part of the SPA in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, chose to contest three seats independently in Puducherry after being offered only one.

The current term of the 30-member Puducherry Legislative Assembly is scheduled to expire on June 15. The counting of votes is underway on May 4, with final results expected later in the day.

- ANI