Pondicherry: The newly elected legislators of the Congress in Pondicherry would have a joint meeting with the All India Congress Committee delegates here on Saturday, an informed source in the party said. The source told The Hindu that here on Friday that the observers of the AICC, Motilal Vora, B K. Hariprasad and a few others would participate in the meeting and enlist the views of the legislators for the formation of the Ministry.

The question whether the Congress would form a government on its own or with the support of the DMK and other constituents of the DPA from outside would be known shortly.

The Congress, which contested 16 seats as part of the DPA, has emerged victorious in ten constituencies (one seat less than what it could annex in the poll held in 2001), while the DMK has annexed seven out of 11 seats it contested. The PMK and the CPI had annexed all the seats they contested as constituents of the DPA.

The president of the PCC, P. Shanmugham, said that the verdict of the people was an expression of their expectation that there should be a continued rule by the DPA in Pondicherry. He said that there would be no friction in formation of the government as all decisions the AICC leader Sonia Gandhi would take would be final and binding the DPA. Asked why the Congress had drawn a blank in Karaikal, Mr. Shanmugham said that in a democracy people's verdict was supreme. He said that the DPA as such had emerged victorious cumulatively in 20 out of 30 seats it contested.

The normal strength of a Ministry in Pondicherry would be six although at times it had had a five-member Cabinet.

The posts available are six Ministerial berths, Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Government Whip and Parliamentary Secretary. There is also a facility for the government to have three members as nominated legislators after getting the approval of the Union Home Ministry. This facility available in the statue relating to the Union Territory Legislative Assembly was first used in 1985 when the Congress formed a single party rule.

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