Centre names members to Pondy Assembly

Though there was no official conformation for the same, the news was doing in political and government circles and all the three were said to BJP activists. It is said that BJP state President V Saminathan, party treasurer Shankar and Selvaganapathy, a party activist and a school correspondent were the three nominated members. 

Meanwhile, the government was making efforts to obtain a stay from the court to stall the Centre’s move, sources said. AIADMK (Amma) legislature party leader A Anbazhagan told newspersons that the Congress government remained non-functional and the Lt Governor turning the situation to her advantage had recommended the three names and the Union government had reportedly approved them. 

The Chief Minister had lost the moral right to continue in office and hence, he should resign, Anbazhagan demanded. DMK member R Siva said that appointing three BJP activists as nominated members when a Congress government was in power in the union territory was “undemocratic”. 

This clearly showed that the Lt Governor was acting in favour of the BJP. Congress Member Theepanjan termed the Centre’s move as “undemocratic”. The usual practice is that the elected government will select three nominated members and submit the list to the Lt Governor who in turn will forward it to the Union Home Ministry for approval. 

During the previous N R Congress regime, nominated members could not be appointed till the Congress government was in office at the Centre and three members were appointed only after the BJP came to power. 

Presently, Chief Minister V Narayansamy failed to take any constructive step in this direction because of the confrontation between him and the Lt Governor and also because the BJP is in power at the Centre. In this backdrop, the Lt Governor reportedly recommended the names of three BJP activists as nominated members and the Centre has approved it. 

Sensing the move, the government through the Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister K Lakshminarayanan had already moved the Madras High Court seeking a stay for any appointment without the recommendations of the elected government. However, the court refused to grant a stay following which the appointment was finalised.