Two more MLAs quit in Pondy; govt's strength drops to 11

Two more MLAs of the Congress-DMK alliance in Puducherry resigned on Sunday, delivering yetanother jolt to Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, a day before heis scheduled to face a floor test in the assembly to prove hismajority.

The resignation by Congress MLA K Lakshminarayanan andDMK legislator Venkatesan further reduced the strength of theruling alliance to 11, while the opposition has 14 MLAs in the33-member assembly, which has seven vacancies.

Lakshminarayanan and Venkatesan submitted theirresignation letters separately to Assembly Speaker V PSivakolundhu at his residence here, the both said.

Speaking to reporters, Lakshminarayanan said, ''thisgovernment led by Narayanasamy has lost majority.'' He said he has also resigned from the party membership.

Later, Venkatesan told the media that he had quit thepost of MLA only and continued to be in the DMK.

''... I was not able to meet the needs of the people in myconstituency since there was no allocation of funds under theMLA Local Area Development fund,'' he said.

Four Congress MLAs--including ex-ministers ANamassivayam (now in BJP) and Malladi Krishna Rao had quit,while another party legislator was earlier disqualified.

Narayanasamy's confidante A John Kumar had resigned thisweek.

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, handed overadditional charge of Puducherry, had on Thursday directedNarayanasamy to prove majority by ordering a floor test onFebruary 22.

The resignation of two MLAs' comes on a day when theruling party members are slated to meet under the CM todiscuss the future course of action, though similardiscussions on February 18 yielded no results.

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