Pondy Minister Namassivayam quits as Minister, MLA; suspended from Cong primary membership

Puducherry PWD Minister ANamassivayam on Monday resigned from the Ministry and alsofrom the Assembly after the ruling Congress suspended him fromprimary membership on charges of anti-party activities.

Another Congress legislator E Theeppainthan also quitfrom the Assembly and the two submitted their resignation toSpeaker V P Sivakolundhu at his office, bringing down thestrength of the ruling Congress to 12 in the 30-member House.

The development comes months ahead of the Assemblypolls in the union territory likely to be held during April orMay.

Namassivayam, who was No.2 in the cabinet, madeknown his decision to quit the V Narayanasamy ministry andalso as a legislator amid speculation that he was planning tojoin the BJP.

The strength of the cabinet has now come down to five.

Earlier, Puducherry Congress Committee president A VSubramanian announced at a press meet earlier in the day thatNamassivayam was suspended from the primary membership of theparty for 'anti-party activities'.

Namassivayam and Theeppainathan submitted the lettersof resignation to the Speaker at his office, according tosources close to them.

With the resignation of the two MLAs, the strength ofthe ruling Congress which was returned from 15 constituenciesin the 2016 Assembly polls has come down to 12 in the 30-member House.

Namassivayam represented Villianoor constituency whileTheeppainthan was elected from Oussudu (reserved)constituency.

Congress legislator N Dhanavelou was disqualified inJuly last year by the Speaker under the Anti-Defection Act.

The Congress has the support of the three DMK membersfrom outside.

Namassivayam also submitted his resignation letter asMinister to the Speaker as the Chief Minister was not presentat his office, sources close to him said.

In his letter, he thanked the Chief Minister for theopportunity given to him to serve the people of the unionterritory.

Namassivayam, who was suspended from the primarymembership of the Congress for his 'anti-party activities' hadallegedly been making moves to shift allegiance to the BJP andkept himself away from party meetings including that of theexecutive committee held at the PCC office Sunday.

Addressing his supporters here Sunday night, he hadclaimed he was ''pained by continued neglect of hisrepresentations for recognition of his workers.'' ''However, patience has a limit. Hence I have decidedto quit as Minister and also as MLA,'' he added.

The BJP national president J P Nadda is scheduled tovisit Puducherry on January 31 to address a rally of partyworkers here.

The party-wise break-up in the Assembly followingMonday's development is: Congress (12 including Speaker), DMK(three), Independent (one), AIADMK (four) and AINRC (seven).

There are two nominated members belonging to the BJPfollowing the death of K G Shankar last week.PTI Cor SSPTI PTI