Lok Sabha Elections 2019: All you need to know about Puducherry

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Updated: Mar 10, 2019 22:11 IST

A tight contest is in store for the lone Lok Sabha seat from Puducherry in the upcoming 2019 elections.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held in 7 phases starting April 11. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

The main contenders are Congress led by chief minister V Narayanasamy, a former minister in the PMO under Manmohan Singh. The Congress has the backing of the DMK in Tamil Nadu, led by MK Stalin.

Narayanasamy will take on his predecessor, N Rangasamy, a former Congressman and founder of AINRC, who has the support of AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

The Union territory has been in the news recently because of a tussle between the chief minister V Narayanasamy (Cong) and the Lt Governor Kiran Bedi, who has been appointed by the BJP government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bedi has been accused of delaying welfare schemes by the Narayanasamy government. The chief minister sat on a dharna against the L-G, and got support from Delhi chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal. The stir was later called off.

The upcoming polls could significantly change the scenario for the former French colony.

Polling dates: April 18

Date of counting: May 23

Ruling Coalition: Congress-DMK

Number of Lok Sabha seats: 1

Partywise breakup

All India N Rangasamy Congress (AINRC): 1

Number of voters in the state: 9.48 lakh

Voter Turnout in 2014: 74.02%

Puducherry Assembly

Total Seats: 30 Elected/3 Nominated

Congress Alliance: 17 (Congress - 15 + DMK - 2)

AINRC: 7 (it was 8, but one member was disqualified following conviction)

AIADMK: 4

Independent: 1

Nominated: 3 (BJP)

Key Leaders

Congress: Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, PWD Minister & PCC Chief A Namasivayam

DMK: R Siva, AMH Nazeem

AINRC: N Rangasamy, party founder and former chief minister

BJP: State president V Saminathan

Key Issues:

The turf war between chief minister V Narayanasamy and Lt Governor Kiran Bedi took a serious turn with the former holding a sit-in for 6 days in front of Raj Bhavan.

Both have reached a truce and Bedi, who was accused of sitting over files and not sanctioning welfare programmes, has cleared certain schemes. But, the battle is still on.

With the AIADMK having allotted the Lok Sabha seat to the AINRC and DMK to the Congress, the contest is between the Congress and the AINRC.