Puducherry: Special session of territorial assembly on Feb 22

With four congress legislators resigning,the opposition parties submitted a memorandum to Lt.Governor Tamilisai Sounderarajan who assumed office on Feb 18 as acting Lt.Governor following the removal of Kiran Bedi from the post,stating that the congress government was reduced to a minority and to direct chief minister to prove his majority.

Following this,the LG directed the chief minister to prove his majority before 5 pm on Feb 22.

Legislative assembly secretary Munusamy last night sent a note to all legislators that the session will commence at 10 am on Monday.

It may be noted that Congress member from Bahour Dhanavelu was disqualified last year for anti-party activities and recently, PWD minister A Namasivayam and legislator Thepainthan from Ossudu resigned and joined the BJP and Health minister Malladi Krishna Rao resigned.

Congress member from Kamaraj Nagar constituency John Kumar also resigned. Thus, the strength of the 33 member (including three nominated)assembly was reduced to 28.

Both the ruling party and the opposition got an equal strength of 14 each and in this backdrop, the assembly is heading for the crucial floor test on Monday.

Though, the three nominated BJP members enjoy voting right as per a supreme court judgement, Chief Minister Narayanasmay is maintaining that they could not vote in a confidence vote and he is consulting legal experts in this regard.