The curious case of Yanam: Congress skips naming candidate for constituency
Smarting from the fall of itsgovernment here last month, Congress may be keen to put up agood show in the April 6 Assembly polls here, but it certainlyseems to be in some dilemma over contesting from Yanam as ithas not fielded anyone, with nominations drawing to a close.
A stronghold of ex-Congress leader and former ministerMalladi Krishna Rao, Yanam, an enclave of Puducherry in AndhraPradesh and 900 km away from the small city, will see formerchief minister and AINRC founder N Rangasamy testing hisfortunes from here this time, besides Thattanchavady.
Congress leaders are tight-lipped over skipping thesegment, but it is widely believed that the party did not wantto risk a candidate from the turf of Rao, who has thrown hisweight behind Rangasamy.
Earlier, the Congresswas earmarked 15 of the total 30assembly segments to field its candidates from, while 13 seatshad been set apart for the DMK, its alliance partner.
The remaining two seats had been allotted to allies VCKand the CPI.
However, the Congress fielded candidates from 14segments and left Yanam out. With no big names in the fray, itcould be a virtual walk over for Rangasamy.
Rao had even assured Rangasamy that the latter need notvisit the Constituency as he would take care of campaign andother poll relative activities.
Rao has been representing Yanam since 1996 and was theHealth Minister in the V Narayansasamy government which fellon February 22 ahead of a trust vote while being reduced to aminority.
Though Rao did not seek re-election from Yanam, his homeconstituency, he has extended support to Rangasamy.He had quitas MLA and Minister in February and shifted his allegiance tothe AINRC.
Rao started wooing voters in Yanam even before Rangasamyfiled nomination and had unequivocally told the people at ameeting recently that the AINRC leader, heading the NDA here,would be chief minister of Puducherry.
NDAs other constituents here are the BJP and AIADMK.
Rao was recently felicitated for his long, unbrokenstint as a member of the legislative assembly.
However, his shifting allegiance to AINRC during the runup to the elections and skipping the electoral battle came asa surprise to many.
Rangasamy had in 2011 contested from Indira Nagar andKadirkamam segments in Puducherry and retained the latterthough he emerged victorious from both seats.
His nephew Tamilselvane successfully contested the byelection in IndiraNagar the same year.
With the exit of a good number of Congress legislators anda couple of Ministers, including A Namassivayam, the party isvirtually divested of key persons to face the electoralbattle.
The party facing the elections from 15 seats also has notgone down well with the rank and file as it fielded nomineesfrom 21 constituencies in the 2016 polls.
On the other hand, the DMK, which contested from ninesegments in the previous poll, has been given 13 seats.
Puducherry has been considered by and large a pocketborough for Congress, but the party this time cannot take thesituation for granted, political observers say.
The present election is thus crucial and a litmus testfor the grand old party in this former French colony.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)