Kiran Bedi stuns Puducherry govt, swears in NDA picks

PUDUCHERRY: Three people nominated to the legislative assembly of Puducherry by the NDA-led central government were sworn in by lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi at Raj Nivas around 8pm on Tuesday. The sudden move took Congress , which leads the union territory's administration, by surprise as the government was planning to move court against the nominations , sources said.The three MLAs are BJP's Puducherry chief V Saminathan, treasurer K G Shankar and pro-BJP educationist S Selvaganapathy. The three had had earlier called on Bedi, chief secretary Manoj Parida and assembly speaker V Vaithilingam. When they sought to give Vaithilingam copies of the Centre's order nominating them as members, he directed them to submit the documents to the assembly secretary, indicating that they "will receive a communication" on the mayye.I n the meantime, Parida issued a gazette notification re-publishing the Centre's order. This is not the first time a lieutenant governor has administered the oath of office and secrecy to MLAs, instead of the speaker. In 1990, the then incumbent, Chandravathi, administered the oath of office and secrecy to three nominated MLAs from DMK when the DMK-JD coalition was in office .Several parties, including DMK, have called a bandh against the move on July 8.