Chennai: With the dissension in the NDA government headed by N Rangasamy of the All India NR Congress (AINRC) out in the open, the Congress has stepped in to fish in the troubled waters. The rift in the ruling coalition has been brewing for a long and the Chief Minister is sulking at being dwarfed by Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who is also the Governor of Telangana. In this bacdrop, Congress has smelt an opportunity to widen the chasm between the allies.
“We are ready to join the fight for statehood under the leadership of Rangasamy. Is he prepared to snap the ties with the BJP. We will also bring all our allies to rally behind you in the fight, which we have launched much earlier,” said local Congress MP and former Chief Minister V Vaithilingam. “You should take the lead and we will follow suit wholeheartedly till we secure our objective,” he added.
The occasion was the birth anniversary celebration of freedom fighter and former Chief Minister Venkatasubba Reddiar, who is the father of Vaithilingam. Former Chief Minister V Narayanansamy was also in attendance at the event. A shrewd politician that he is, Rangasamy has pitched in the demand for statehood to put his saffron ally in a corner. For, the LG projecting herself as the face of the government has eclipsed the elected Chief Minister and the BJP punching above its weight has not gone down well with him. Furthermore, the opposition has been describing him as a dummy and only last week, his Tamil Nadu counterpart, MK Stalin slammed him as a 'puppet Chief Minister'.
Rangasamy does not hide his displeasure over his plight anymore. “I am anguished over the inability to accomplish many things due to the absence of statehood despite being in power. We have pressed many times, but the Union government is not paying heed to the demand for statehood. Only we know the difficulties and hurdles,” he told a delegation of 60 Civil Society organisations led by independent legislator K Nehru. The delegation urged him to convene a special session of the legislature to discuss the issue of statehood.
Prior to that, at an event in which Union Minister G Kishan Reddy and Tamilisai were also present, Rangasamy made it clear that the elected government should be vested with more powers. “It is a huge stress every day. To implement development projects we require prior approval of the Centre and due to the inordinate delay, we could not cater to growth and development,” he said, tactfully shifting the blame on the BJP. Whether it was the Congress in power earlier or the NDA now, the turf war continues. While Narayanasamy was engaged in a constant battle with Kiran Bedi, Rangasamy is yet to take on the Raj Bhavan in a similar style. And Congress is egging him on to launch a war front.
However, the BJP and the AIADMK, another NDA constituent in Puducherry, maintain that the Chief Minister was raking up the issue of statehood to divert attention from the issue of granting licences to liquor manufacturers. Recently, the territorial government issued a fresh licence to five Bottling and Blending Units (BBU) for manufacturing IMFL. Furthermore, the allocation of 250 liquor shops under the tourism category is not to the liking of the BJP and the AIADMK. “As a policy, the BJP is opposed to alcohol. Already the liquor manufacturers are drawing more groundwater. Grant of fresh licence would deplete the groundwater table,” said Puducherry BJP president V Saminathan in a statement.
Reacting to the development, VCK leader D Ravikumar, MP, said that Rangasamy has started making moves with his eyes set on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “Aware of the possibility of the BJP making a claim for the lone LS seat in Puducherry, the Chief Minister is making the right noises. He is no novice to politics, but a shrewd operator and as such cannot be expected to surrender the seat to the BJP and play second fiddle to the saffron party. He hopes that the statehood issue would help him to keep the BJP under check,” he explained.
