Dissidents contest in 11 of 30 seats in Puducherry

Puducherry: Dissidents are contesting in 11 of 30 constituencies in the Union territory of Puducherry. Ten functionaries of the All India NR Congress (AINRC) including four sitting MLAs, who quit the party are either contesting on other party tickets or as independents. Two sitting Congress MLAs switched loyalties and are contesting on AINRC tickets in the ensuing polls.
Three AINRC MLAs - P M L Kalyanasundaram (Kalapet), M Vaithianathan (Lawspet) and R Karthikeyan (Oussudu), who were denied seats by party founder leader and chief minister N Rangasamy, have entered the poll fray as independent candidates from their respective constituencies. These three MLAs were leading a revolt against Rangasamy accusing him of acting in a 'unilateral manner' without consulting his cabinet colleagues and elected members of the assembly. They threatened to cross vote during the Rajya Sabha polls forcing Rangasamy to offer the seat to AIADMK to safeguard his government.
Rangasamy openly attacked the independent candidates during his campaign and urged the electorate to reject them as they cannot ensure formation of a stable government.
Another sitting MLA P Angalane (Thirubhuvanai), who joined Congress just before the assembly polls, was rightly rewarded with Congress ticket. Interestingly Angalane elected on Congress ticket from Thirubhuvanai constituency in 2006 assembly polls switched loyalties to AINRC ahead of 2011 and was elected from the same constituency.
M N R Balan, former chief minister R V Janakiraman's son in law, who resigned from AINRC and joined Congress will contest from Oulgaret constituency. Another functionary T Sambathkumar is contesting from the same constituency as an independent candidate. Vaiyapuri Manikandan joined AIADMK and was nominated as the party candidate from Muthialpet constituency and N Danavelou joined Congress and was nominated as candidate as party candidate from Bahour constituency. The other functionaries - K S P Ramesh (Kadirkamam) and Embalam Selvam alias R Selvam (Manavely) - were contesting as independent candidates.
Two Congress MLAs Theni C Jayakumar (Mangalam) and P R N Thirumurugan (Karaikal North) quit the party and are contesting on AINRC tickets from Villianur and Karaikal North constituencies respectively.