Pondicherry: The Congress is forming its first minority government in Pondicherry with its alliance parties (DMK, PMK and CPI) extending unconditional support from outside.

The Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) has bagged 20 seats in the 30-member Assembly. However, the Congress alone is getting the opportunity (in view of its larger numerical strength) to form the government.

The DMK has seven members on its side, the PMK two and the CPI one. The formation of the government by the Congress is a direct sequel to decisions taken by the DPA.

The Congress legislators have elected N Rangasamy as the Legislature Party Leader unanimously, authorising him to form the government for second time in a row.

He would be sworn in Chief Minister on May 18. He would thus have to pilot the government single-handedly without his Ministerial companions for a few days. Neither the Congress nor its alliance partners here had expected that such a situation would arise even when the DPA as a whole had garnered 20 seats.

The PCC delegation was now holding intensive talks with the AICC to finalise the names of incumbents of Ministers for the six-member Cabinet.

Dramatic formula

A virtually dramatic formula has come to embarrass the major parties like DMK, said a section of Congress functionaries here. The minimum strength a party or a coalition needs is 16 to form the government.

When the results were announced on May 11, they were hopeful that Pondicherry would have a coalition Ministry. But this has turned out to be a near wishful thinking particularly for allies of the Congress.

Helpless situation

Because the DMK and other parties subsequently found themselves in a situation to only witness from sidelines the formation of the government by the Congress.

Pondicherry has had coalition ministries for most of the time in the past.

The single party rule was an exception. Only when the Congress had minimum requisite strength on its own it established single party government here. For instance, the Congress formed single-party rule in in 1964, 1985, 1991 and 2001. On other occasions the AIADMK or the DMK formed coalition governments.

Short lived AIADMK-CPI Ministry came into being in 1974, an AIADMK- (the then) Congress (S) alliance Ministry ruled Pondicherry for a year from 1977 and DMK-Janata Dal alliance government was in power for three years from 1980 onwards.

The DMK-TMC-CPI coalition government was formed in 1996 and it remained in office for four years. This is because the Congress itself lacks the requisite strength to go in for a single party rule.

Question arises whether this indicates the fall in sway on the part of the Congress among the people in the Union Territory.

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