With Puducherry gearing up for yet another election, scheduled for April 9, it would be interesting to see how the Union Territory has voted in the past three Assembly elections.
The Puducherry Assembly has 30 seats. In many ways, the 2011 Assembly election turned out to be a watershed in the Union Territory’s political history. That year heralded the beginning of the journey of a new regional outfit — the All India N.R. Congress (AINRC), led by Chief Minister N. Rangasamy — that proved itself capable of challenging the dominance of mainstream political parties such as the Congress, the DMK, the AIADMK, and the Left in the electoral landscape of the former French enclave.
Several upheavals
The emergence of a regional outfit after the Government of Union Territories Act came into force in 1963, which was capable of forming a government on its own, brought with it several upheavals in Puducherry’s political scene. More than 15 years after its formation, the AINRC remains the fulcrum on which the politics of Puducherry is centred — a role once occupied by the Congress.
Mr. Rangasamy was originally a Congress man. After his removal as the Chief Minister in the Congress government in 2008 following a rebellion in the Cabinet, Mr. Rangasamy, just days before the 2011 Assembly election, decided to end his decades-old association with the Grand Old Party to form his own outfit. The party went to the polls in an alliance with the AIADMK, secured 15 of the 18 seats it had contested, and formed a government on its own.
The AINRC’s entry into the political arena led to several shifts and churns in the years leading up to the 2026 election. Though the Congress still holds its ground despite a severe setback in the 2021 Assembly election, the parallel story, along with the rise of the AINRC, has been the emergence of the BJP with a strong organisational base, and the decline of the AIADMK.
The Congress rebounded in 2016 with voters electing its candidates in 15 of the 21 constituencies it had contested. It formed a government with the support of its ally, the DMK. The AINRC, however, maintained its vote share, and became the main Opposition party, winning eight seats.
BJP’s expansion
The Congress rule during 2016-21 saw a parallel push by the BJP’s central leadership to expand the party’s footprint across the country. It also saw the saffron party making aggressive moves to establish its political base in the Union Territory. The BJP took its first step in this endeavour through the appointment of three party members as nominated legislators in the Assembly in 2018. Then, by weaning away the legislators of other parties, particularly the Congress, the BJP had forced its way to the centre stage of Puducherry’s politics by 2021.
From being a party that continuously forfeited deposits in elections till 2016, the BJP was able to change its fortunes in the last Assembly election by aligning itself with the AINRC to establish the first NDA government in Puducherry.
The AIADMK, which once ruled the territory, was wiped out in the last election. It contested the 2021 election in an alliance with the AINRC and the BJP, but could not win a single seat.
The outcome of the last election resulted in changes in the power equations within the INDIA bloc, too. The DMK, which contested the poll in 13 constituencies, won in six, while its ally, the Congress, which was in the fray in 14 constituencies, could win in only two. The DMK’s position as the principal Opposition party in the current Assembly has increased its bargaining power with the Congress for this year’s election. The Congress, which led the alliance in past elections, suddenly went out of favour with the other partners, including the Left and the VCK.
Marginal players
The Left parties, particularly the CPI, which played a major role in Puducherry’s independence and enjoyed a share of power after the merger of the territory with the Indian Union, have been relegated to being marginal players in the past three Assembly elections.
If there is any single major change that has occurred in the political sphere in recent times, it is the entry of a new outfit, the Latchiya Jananayaga Katchi (LJK), headed by businessman Jose Charles Martin, son of lottery king Santiago Martin.
The junior Martin, through his business partners among BJP legislators and Independents, arrived at the scene as a big-hearted donor, doling out largesse under the guise of welfare assistance in the constituencies held by the ruling party. Last year, Mr. Jose decided to form the LJK, and launched an initiative of providing free food in three constituencies, two of them held by the BJP.
By Deepavali last year, the LJK had gone into overdrive, distributing gift articles, prompting many leading politicians — former Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy among them — to emulate the junior Martin in select constituencies.
Though the distribution of freebies was a practice followed by all parties all these years, the decision of a businessman with deep pockets to venture into electoral politics may have changed the dynamics of the 2026 election.
Published – March 27, 2026 10:49 pm IST
