Congress Unveils 16 Candidates for 2026 Puducherry Assembly Polls

According to the list, DPR Selvam will contest from Mannadipattu, while P Karthikeyan has been fielded from Oosudu. Other prominent candidates include N Raja Kumar from Indiranagar, V Vaithilingam from Thattanchavady, PK Devadas from Kamarajnagar, and M Vaidyanathan from Lawspet. G Rajendran will contest from Muthialpet, J Vijayalakshmi from Ariyankuppam, and RKR Anandaraman from Manavely.

The party has also fielded M Kandasamy from Embalam, G Anparasan from Nettapakkam, Dinesh Kumar from Nedungadu, R Kamalakannan from Thirunallar, and AM Ranjith from Karaikal North. In Mahe, Ramesh Parampath has been named as the candidate, while Kollapalli Srinivas Ashok will contest from Yanam.

The announcement follows a seat-sharing agreement finalised earlier this week between the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), under which Congress will contest 16 of the 30 seats, while the DMK will contest the remaining 14 constituencies.

"We will share seats among the alliance parties in the 14 seats allotted to DMK," the party's Puducherry election in-charge Jagadrakshagan said.

Congress and DMK are also alliance partners in Tamil Nadu, where the Chief Minister MK Stalin-led party allotted the Congress 28 of 234 seats for the 2026 Assembly elections.

In the 2021 Puducherry Assembly Elections, AINRC emerged as the largest party with 10 seats, followed by DMK with six seats, while BJP and Congress won six seats each. The voter turnout was recorded at 84.8 per cent.

While in the 2016 elections, Congress had secured a majority with 15 seats, AINRC won eight seats, AIADMK bagged four seats, and DMK got two seats, with voter turnout at 83.6 per cent.

- ANI