Puducherry: Will the friction between the CM and the LG lead to a friction in NDA?

With assembly general elections round the corner, the tussle between Chief Minister N. Rangaswamy and Lieutenant Governor K. Kailashnathan has turned political only to widen the rift in the AINRC-BJP coalition. While the BJP has put off the growing differences for now, it is all likely to grow into a full-blown crisis in the run up to the elections.

The appointment of S. Sevvel as the Director of Health and Family Welfare by the governor flared up the rift between the CM and the LG. The CM’s office recommended the name Anantha Lakshmi for the post while LG rejected it and appointed Sevvel.

Following this, the CM chose to skip office for three consecutive days while the AINRC legislators called on the assembly speaker R. Selvam asking him to convene a special session of the House to discuss on the issue of statehood to Puducherry. This is a long pending demand which had gained strength in the past few months as the BJP was constantly rifting with the AINRC. The decision to seek a special assembly session was a symbolic and strategic move by the AINRC that administrative control should be with Rangaswamy.

However, on Thursday, as the issue flared up, the BJP rushed its in-charge Nirmal Kumar Surana to Puducherry. He called on Rangaswamy at his residence. After meeting Surana, Rangaswamy played down the reports on differences between him and the Lieutenant Governor. When scribes asked, Rangaswamy said that there were minor issues in the administration and it was being sorted out. “We all want the NDA to come back to power again in Puducherry after the 2026 Assembly poll. Discussions are on to avoid such differences and a mechanism will be put in place to sort out things in future,” Rangaswamy clarified. Sources say that Surana who called on Rangaswamy along with Puducherry Home Minister Namassivayam asked him not to cause any confusion in the coalition until the next election.

However, the current stand-off seems to be deeper and unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Though Surana mediated a truce and smoothened the crisis, sources in AINRC say that the BJP had been undermining Rangaswamy’s authority for the past few months continuously not just in administrative control but also in decision making. “CM is frustrated over LG’s refusal to approve decisions taken by his cabinet. He is not willing to trust the BJP anymore,” a senior leader in AINRC told THE WEEK. And Rangaswamy skipping office for three days was only to send a clear message to the central leadership of the BJP that he cannot tolerate LG’s interference anymore in the administration.

Politically, Rangaswamy feels that the BJP will demand more seats in the 2026 elections and make him a junior partner in the NDA, only to form its own government in the union territory. Incidentally, most of the Congress legislators who jumped ship and joined the BJP in 2021, ahead of the assembly polls, believe that the BJP will lead the alliance in the upcoming elections and Rangaswamy will have to go by the Delhi high command’s decision in choosing the coalition’s CM candidate.

The issue, though, settled for now, sources in AINRC say that it might grow into a full-blown crisis in the run up to the election. Given his party’s strength and the BJP’s steady growth in the union territory the AINRC and Rangaswamy do not have a choice but to go by Delhi’s decision.  

India