Puducherry Crisis: BJP Demands Speaker’s Post, Announcement Will Be Made Today, Says Territory BJP Chief V Saminathan

While the Speaker will be from the BJP, Deputy Speaker will be from the AINRC. Five ministers will be shared between the BJP and AINRC, according to BJP state President Swaminathan.

File Photo (Photo Credit -@pspoffice)

Puducherry: A meeting between Chief Minister N. Rangasami and the state BJP leaders have almost put an end to the stalemate in ministerial induction and other posts in the newly elected Puducherry government of the NDA.

While the Speaker will be from the BJP, Deputy Speaker will be from the AINRC. Five ministers will be shared between the BJP and AINRC, according to BJP state President Swaminathan.

The Puducherry state BJP President while speaking to IANS said, "There are no differences of opinion between the BJP and the AINRC and we have amicably cleared all the posts."

However, the BJP President refused to detail the sharing of ministerial portfolios between the two coalition partners. When asked on the Deputy Chief Minister posting, the BJP leader said, "The Chief Minister will send a proposal to the Union home ministry and the central government will process and decide on it."

The BJP leader contended that the opposition DMK was trying to take advantage of the Chief Minister suffering from Covid and his hospitalisation and added that there were no differences in the coalition.

Swaminathan said, "The DMK was trying to take advantage of the Chief Minister’s health condition and his hospitalization due to Covid."

It may be recalled that the senior DMK leader and Tamil Nadu water resources minister Duraimurugan had said that the BJP was eying for the Chief Minister’s post by nominating three MLAs to the assembly and to poach upon the independent legislators. Puducherry has six independent MLAs in the Assembly.