PUDUCHERRY: Chief minister N Rangasamy has quit the Indira Nagar seat - one of the two seats he won in the April 13 Assembly elections - but retained Kadirgamam.Rangasamy submitted his resignation to Speaker of the Territorial Assembly R Radhakrishnan on Monday night. As per rules, the resignation has to be submitted within 14 days from the date of election results. A notification would be sent to the Election Commission of India in this regard, said M Sivaprakasam, secretary of the Territorial Assembly.Following this, the strength of the All India NR Congress (AINRC) has come down to 14 in the 30-member Assembly, which now has 29 members, with Indira Nagar seat falling vacant. However, the AINRC would still enjoy majority with 15 members as long as it enjoys the support of an Independent V M C Sivakumar (a rebel DMK candidate).Sivakumar already pledged support to the government and also presented a letter of support to Lieutenant Governor Iqbal Singh on May 15, when Rangasamy presented a letter of his unanimous election as leader of the AINRC legislature wing, paving the way for his assumption of office as Chief Minister on May 16. A by-election would be held within six months. However, it is expected to take place much earlier along with Tamil Nadu, following the death of Minister N Mariam Pichai.Rangasamy has, however, made history by being the first candidate to contest an election in the UT from two constituencies and winning both. Also, this is the first instance of a seat falling vacant due to such a reason and requiring by-election in the UT.Both Kadirgamam and Indira Nagar were carved out of Rangasamy’s earlier constituency Thattanchavady, following delimitation. It was trifurcated, with the third constituency being Thattanchavady. Rangasamy polled 83.77 per cent of the total polled votes in Indira Nagar and 70 per cent votes in Kadirkamam. His rival V Arumugham (INC), a cop-turned-politician polled 16.23 percent votes in Indira Nagar, while in Kadirkamam former minister V Pethaperumal(INC) polled 28.16 percent votes.The total number of votes polled in Indira Nagar is 24,693, while in Kadirgamam it was 23,312 . Rangasamy polled 20,685 votes in Indira Nagar and 16,323 in Kadirkamam, while Arumugham polled 4,008 votes and V Pethaperumal 6,566 votes.
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