India / Puducherry CM, cabinet members resign after losing confidence vote in Assembly

Puducherry: Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and his cabinet colleagues in the union territory resigned on Monday after the government lost the confidence vote sought by him in the face of its depleted strength of 11 against opposition's 14 in the House.

After staging a walkout from the Assembly before the motion seeking confidence vote was put up for voting in the House, Narayanasamy proceeded to the Raj Nivas and submitted his resignation to Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan.

Though Narayanasamy moved the motion seeking the confidence vote minutes after the Assembly met for a special one-day session, he and his ruling side MLAs later walked out before the motion was put for voting.

The chief minister said the ruling side walked out after the Speaker V Sivakolundhu did not accept its contention that only the elected members have voting rights during the confidence vote, apparently referring to the three nominated BJP members.

Subsequently, Speaker VP Sivakolundhu declared that the motion stood defeated.

"Our view that only the elected members can vote in the House was not accepted by the Speaker. So we walked out of the assembly and met the Lt Governor and gave resignation letter of my cabinet," Narayanasamy said.

He was accompanied by his ministers, Congress and DMK MLAs besides the independent legislator who had earlier supported the government.

It was up to the Lt Governor to decide on their resignation, he added.

He, however, did not respond to queries on his next course of action.

Earlier speaking in the House, Narayanasamy said that former Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and Central Government colluded with the Opposition in a bid to topple his government in the Union territory.

"Former LG Kiran Bedi and Central Government colluded with the Opposition and tried to topple the government. As our MLAs stayed united we managed to pull off the last 5 years. The Centre has betrayed the people of Puducherry by not granting funds we requested," said Puducherry in the Assembly.

"We formed the government with the support of DMK and independent MLAs. After that, we faced various elections. We have won all the by-elections. It is clear that people of Puducherry trust us," he added.

Further slamming the Centre, he said, "We demanded full Statehood to stop the nominated LG from snatching the rights of the people of Puducherry."

"Even after the parliamentary committee suggesting the Central Government to give full Statehood, Central Government refused it. Central Government didn't do anything to grant us full Statehood," CM said.

He also claimed that the Central Government has betrayed the people of Puducherry by not granting the finds we requested.