PUDUCHERRY: Veteran Congress leader V Narayansamy has said that both his party and the Dravidian partner, the DMK, are responsible for the confusion over seat-sharing and dismissed it as a minor setback.
The DMK did not buy the argument and said it was the Congress that committed a "big mistake" of fielding nominees in 6 additional segments.
The 78-year old former chief minister asserted that talks must not have been allowed to prolong.
In an interview with PTI, Narayanasamy dismissed the AINRC-BJP government as a regime that completely "betrayed" the people of Puducherry.
People desire change and this was evident when we undertook a padayatra recently in Puducherry.
To a question, he said: "Confusion over seat sharing among the alliance partners, the Congress and DMK is only a small setback, people reject the BJP out and out. Chief Minister N Rangasamy has become a stooge of the BJP and I am confident people will reject him." In the wake of the difficulties observed and obstacles faced during the protracted seat-sharing negotiations between his party and the ally DMK, the veteran leader said Congress nominees had filed nominations also in the 7 constituencies of Nellithope, Kalapet, Raj Bhavan, Uzhavarkarai, Mangalam, Tirubhuvanai, and Karaikal South.
Meanwhile, it was decided at the eleventh hour that the Congress party would contest from 16 seats and the DMK was earmarked 14 seats. The Dravidian party decided to share one seat with its ally, the VCK.
The 30-member strong Puducherry Assembly goes to polls on April 9.
He said: "The Congress nominee who filed papers in the Nellithope seat withdrew from the race as that constituency was allotted to the DMK. However, six other Congress candidates declined to withdraw, though we told them very clearly that they must withdraw. So, 16 are official Congress candidates, the six others are not official nominees.
The Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ve Vaithilingam has warned of tough action against these 6 men." When pointed out that the 6 nominees would still have the Congress party's hand symbol in the official list of candidates, Narayanasamy regretted that it cannot be undone now.
"It is true that 6 more nominees, though declared unrecognised and unofficial by party, would still have the hand symbol," he noted.
Originally, the six were sponsored by the party. However, when the party wanted them to step aside, they declined to comply with directions, he explained.
Asked if this situation was not a setback, he said the Congress party alone cannot be held responsible: "Both the Congress and DMK are responsible for this kind of situation, this is the outcome of protracted talks." Talks must have been concluded quickly and should not have been allowed to go on till the last minute when the time for withdrawal of candidature closed.
Leader of Opposition and DMK leader V Siva said it was the Congress party that committed a "big mistake; we are contesting only from segments assigned to us. We follow coalition ethics and even now we are working for the victory of the Congress party in constituencies allotted to them." Asked whether he had no regrets that he was not fighting polls this time around, he said: "I have no regrets, I am party worker, I only said that I will contest if I am given an opportunity. DMK insisted on having that (Nellithope) constituency and I thought that there must not be any trouble for the Congress-DMK alliance. Hence, I voluntarily moved out of the race and I conveyed this to the party high command.
"When I was told by a DMK leader that the alliance itself may break if I sought Nellithope constituency, I said alliance between Congress and DMK is more important and I said I am opting out of the race on my own volition," he said.
Narayanasamyi rubbished allegations by some that PCC chief Vaithilingam had a role in denial of opportunity to him. "I categorically reject, dismiss and rebut this allegation. The decision to opt out was mine and the party and Puducherry Pradesh party chief Vaithilingam did not deny me an opportunity."