Pondicherry: Out of the 218 candidates fighting the Assembly polls in the 30 constituencies in the Union Territory of Pondicherry 76 are Independents. The Independents include rebels posing challenge to official nominees of the Congress or some of its allies. Prominent among the rebel candidates are the former Local Administration Minister, A. Elumalai (Oussudu), former legislators V. Sabapathy alias Kothandaraman (Mudaliarpet), N. Rajaram (Mannadipet), N. Marimuthu (Oussudu), Raksha Harikrishna (Yanam) and A. Marimuthu (Neduncadu in Karaikal).

All efforts by the Congress to persuade the rebels to withdraw nominations have failed. There is a four-cornered contest at Nettapakkam in Pondicherry and at Mahe and Palloor in Mahe. At Nettapakkam, the fight is between the former Chief Minister, V. Vaithilingam (Congress), who is the sitting MLA, and his younger brother V. Muthunarayanan (Puducherry Munnetra Congress - PMC). This is the third time in a row that the two brothers, sons of the former Chief Minister, V. Venkatasubba Reddiar, are locking horns in this Congress bastion. Mr. Vaithilingam has been holding the seat consecutively since 1985.

There is a five-cornered fight in Embalam, Cassicadai, Mudaliarpet and Bussy in Pondicherry and Tirunallar in Karaikal. The former Education Minister, K. Lakshminarayanan (PMC), is seeking to retain the Cassicadai constituency. He is pitted against G. Ravichandran (Congress), a new face. The PMC launched by the former Home Minister, P. Kannan, has fielded candidates in 9 segments. Mr. Kannan is contesting in Mudaliarpet. The main contest in Mudaliarpet is among M.A.S. Subramanian - DMK (sitting MLA) , P. Kannan - PMC and Mr. Sabapathy (a rebel Congress candidate fighting as Independent). Mr. Sabapathy hails from Mudaliarpet.

The Oulgaret constituency in Pondicherry has the maximum number of contestants — 12. The main fight is between Agriculture Minister A. Namassivayam (Congress) and former legislator K. Natarajan (AIADMK).

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail