Puducherry: five new ministers take oath

Fifty days after N Rangasamy took over as the Chief Minister of Puducherry, five MLAs -- including two from the BJP , took the oath as ministers on Sunday.  The long power-sharing talks between the NR Congress and the BJP concluded on Friday, ending the suspense over government formation. This is the first time the BJP -- which does not have much of a presence in the union territory- is becoming part of the government. Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan administered the oath to the newly inducted ministers in front of RajNiwas abiding Covid appropriate behaviour.

President Ram Nath Kovind gave his approval to the list of cabinet members submitted by CM, Rangaswamy to Soundararajan earlier this week. A Puducherry Gazette notification said that "the President has been pleased to appoint" A Namassivayam, K Lakshminarayanan, C Djeacoumar, Chandira Priyanga and AK Sai J Saravana Kumar as ministers in the cabinet. Lakshminarayanan, Djeacoumar and Priyanga are from the All India NR Congress and Namassivayam, who left the Congress before the Puducherry assembly elections polls, and Saravana Kumar are from its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party. 

AINRC-BJP alliance won the April 6 assembly elections. AINRC founder Rangaswamy was sworn in as Puducherry’s chief minister on May 7 and BJP's 'Embalam' R Selvam was elected unopposed as the Speaker of the 33-member assembly on June 16.   Puducherry got its first woman minister in over four decades with Priyanga. Late Congress leaders Renuka Appadurai was the last woman minister in Puducherry during 1980-83 and handled the education portfolio in the MDR Ramachandran-led coalition. Infighting in the BJP, with supporters of all the six elected MLAs lobbying for cabinet posts, were  reportedly among the several reasons behind the delay in the cabinet formation.