Two more MLAs quit in Puducherry; Cong-DMK strength dips to 11 a day ahead of floor test

I was not able to meet the needs of the people inmy constituency since there was no allocation of funds underthe MLA Local Area Development fund, he said.Five Congress MLAs--including ex-ministers A Namassivayamnow in BJP and Malladi Krishna Rao have quit since lastmonth, while another party legislator was disqualifiedearlier.Meanwhile, Narayanasamy, who held a meeting with theCongress and DMK MLAs and others here, said the discussionscentered around the strategy to be adopted in the House onMonday.No final decision was taken by the participants attodays meeting...

Two more MLAs of the Congress-DMK alliance in Puducherry resigned on Sunday, delivering yetanother jolt to Chief Minister V Narayanasamy as the rulingside's strength further depleted to 11 against opposition's 14in the 33-member assembly, a day before the trust vote.

Beleaguered Narayanasamy, who held a meeting with theremaining MLAs of the Congress and DMK, said the government'sstrategy would be made known before Monday's floor test,ordered by Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, to prove hismajority.

The fresh bout of resignations took the tally in the lastfew days to three and the cumulative since last month to sixand further reduced the strength of the Congress-DMK combinein the assembly to 11.

Soundararajan had on Thursday ordered the floor testafter the opposition, which has 14 MLAs, petitioned her,saying the government has been reduced to minority and itshould prove its strength in the assembly.

On Sunday, Congress member K Lakshminarayanan and DMK's KVenkatesan quit the assembly, with the former saying thegovernment lacked majority in the wake of the spate ofresignations while the Dravidian party legislator hit out atthe alleged lack of funds to meet people's requirements.

The present party position in the assembly: Congress(nine, including Speaker), DMK two, All-India NR Congressseven, AIADMK four, BJP three (all nominated with votingrights) and one independent who has supported the government.

There are seven vacancies.

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

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

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 inmy constituency since there was no allocation of funds underthe MLA Local Area Development fund,'' he said.

Five Congress MLAs--including ex-ministers A Namassivayam(now in BJP) and Malladi Krishna Rao have quit since lastmonth, while another party legislator was disqualifiedearlier.

Meanwhile, Narayanasamy, who held a meeting with theCongress and DMK MLAs and others here, said the discussionscentered around the strategy to be adopted in the House onMonday.

''No final decision was taken by the participants attoday's meeting... ministers and legislators of the CongressDMK alliance attended and they only discussed the strategy tobe adopted on Monday,'' the chief minister said.

While 'several suggestions'' were put forth in themeeting, it was ''unanimously decided'' that the coalition MLAswill meet on Monday again before the start of the specialsession of the House to take final decision.

''We will disclose our strategy on the floor of the Housetomorrow,'' Narayanasamy said.

The CM-chaired meeting was attended by all threeMinisters - M Kandasamy, M O H F Shah Jahan and RKamalakannan, deputy Speaker M N R Balan, Congress MLAsVidjeaveny, T Jayamoorthy, government whip R K R Anandaraman,DMK legislators R Siva and Geetha Anandan, the lone Lok Sabhamember V Vaithilingam and PCC president A V Subramanian.PTICORR SAVS VS