E-Paper
Rangaswamy named CLP leader
He will stake his claim to form the government in the Union Territory for the second successive term.
N Rangaswamy was on Saturday elected leader of the Pondicherry Congress Legislature party, Congress sources said.
He will stake his claim to form the government in the Union Territory for the second successive term.
Cong stakes claim to form Govt
Armed with letters of support from its allies, the Congress staked its claim to form a Government in the Union Territory of Pondicherry while its MLAs left the leadership issue to party chief Sonia Gandhi.
The allies -- DMK, PMK and the CPI -- handed over letters to the Congress pledging outside support to the ministry. The Congress, which has 10 MLAs in the 30-member territorial assembly, needed the support of six more to reach the majority mark.
The DMK, PMK and the CPI, which contested the polls in alliance with the Congress, had won seven, three and one seats respectively.
Earlier in the day, the newly elected Congress MLAs met here and the left the choice of leader to Gandhi after a consensus eluded them.
AICC treasurer Motilal Vohra, Congress General Secretary Hariprasad and Secretary Sudhakar Reddy, PCC chief P Shanmugham, Chief Minister N Rangaswamy, Pondicherry DMK Chief R V Janakiraman, PMK State secretary Paneerselvam, CPI state secretary N Kalainathan and Congress MP V Narayanasamy met Lt Governor MM Lakhera and handed over the letters.
While DMK General Secretary K Anbazaghan signed the letter of support on behalf of his party, the PMK's was signed by its party general secretary GK Mani and the CPI's by Vishwanathan.