2011 Puducherry Legislative Assembly election

2011 Puducherry Legislative Assembly election

←  2006 13 April 2011 (2011-04-13) 2016  →
All 30 seats to the Puducherry Legislative Assembly 16 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	86.19%
First party Second party   Leader N. Rangaswamy V. Vaithilingam Party AINRC INC Alliance AINRC + AIADMK DPA+UPA Leader since 7 February 2011 4 September 2008 Leader's seat Kadirkamam (retained) Indira Nagar (vacated) Kamaraj Nagar (won) Last election New 10 Seats before New 10 Seats won 15 7 Seat change 3 Percentage 31.75% 25.06%   Third party Fourth party   AIADMK DMK Leader A. Anbazhagan R. Siva Party AIADMK DMK Alliance AIADMK + AINRC DPA+UPA Leader's seat Oupalam (won) Orleampeth (lost) Last election 3 7 Seats won 5 2 Seat change 2 5 Popular vote 95,960 74,552 Percentage 13.75% 10.68%
Green = Indian National Congress, Red = All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Yellow = Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Blue = All India N.R Congress, Grey = Independent
Chief Minister before election V. Vaithilingam INC Elected Chief Minister N. Rangaswamy AINRC

A legislative assembly election was held in the Indian union territory of Puducherry on 13 April 2011 to elect members from thirty constituencies in the non-contiguous territory. This election was meant to constitute the Thirteenth Assembly of Pondicherry. ^[1]

Candidates

26 March 2011 marked the last day to complete nominations for the elections. 30 March 2011 was the last day for possible withdrawal of nominations. ^[1] In total, 187 candidates contested the polls. In Yanam there was a total of ten candidates, the highest number in any constituency in this election. In the Indira Nagar constituency there were just two candidates, former chief minister N. Rangaswamy (who also contested the Kadirkamam constituency, this was the first time in the history of the territory that a candidate contested two different assembly constituencies) and Indian National Congress candidate A.K.D. Aroumougame. ^[2] The counting of the votes was scheduled for 13 May 2011. ^[1]

Campaign

Amongst the contending parties, there were two major coalitions. On one side, there was an alliance backing the incumbent chief minister V. Vaithilingam, consisting of the Indian National Congress (which contested 17 seats), the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (10 seats), Pattali Makkal Katchi (2 seats) and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (1 seat). The other main bloc contesting the election was an alliance consisting of the All India N.R Congress of N. Rangaswamy (contesting 17 seats), the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (10 seats), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (1 seat), the Communist Party of India (1 seat) and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (1 seat). A third force was the Bharatiya Janata Party, which did not align with any of the two big bloc and contested twenty seats on its own. There were also 78 independent candidates in the fray. ^[2]

Several high-profile national politicians took part in the campaigning: Sonia Gandhi (president of the Indian National Congress), Rahul Gandhi (Indian National Congress general secretary), Pranab Mukherjee (Indian National Congress union minister), Nitin Gadkari (BJP president), Sushma Swaraj (BJP MP), Venkaiah Naidu (former BJP president), M. Karunanidhi (DMK chief minister of Tamil Nadu), J. Jayalalithaa (general secretary of AIADMK) and Vijayakanth (general secretary of DMDK). ^[2]

Election

Over 810,000 voters were eligible to take part in the polls. ^[2]

Parties and alliances

Source: ^[3]

   UPA+DPA Alliance

Party			Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Indian National Congress	INC		V. Vaithilingam	17
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	DMK		R. Siva	10
	Pattali Makkal Katchi	PMK		S. Ramadoss	2
	Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi	VCK		Thol. Thirumavalavan	1

   AINRC-AIADMK Alliance

Party			Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	All India N.R. Congress	AINRC		N. Rangasamy	17
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	AIADMK		A. Anbalagan	10
	Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam	DMDK			1
	Communist Party of India	CPI			1
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	CPI(M)			1

List of Candidates

Constituency
		UPA + DPA			AIADMK + AINRC
1	Mannadipet		PMK	K.P.K. Arul Murugan		AINRC	T. P. R. Selvame
2	Thirubuvanai (SC)		INC	K. Jayaraj		AINRC	P. Angalane
3	Ossudu (SC)		DMK	A. Elumalai		AINRC	P. Karthikeyan
4	Mangalam		INC	C. Djeacoumar		AINRC	P. Anandabaskaran
5	Villianur		INC	A. Namassivayam		AINRC	K. Nadarajan
6	Ozhukarai		DMK	A. Johnkumar		AINRC	N.G. Pannirselvam
7	Kadirkamam		INC	V. Pethaperumal		AINRC	N. Rangaswamy
8	Indira Nagar		INC	V. Aroumougam		AINRC	N. Rangaswamy
9	Thattanchavady		DMK	A. Ilango		AINRC	Ashok Anand
10	Kamaraj Nagar		INC	V. Vaithilingam		CPI	Nara. Kalainathan
11	Lawspet		INC	V.P. Sivakolundhu		AINRC	M. Vaithianathan
12	Kalapet		INC	M. O. H. F. Shahjahan		AINRC	P.M.L. Kalyanasundaram
13	Muthialpet		DMK	Nandha. T. Saravanan		AIADMK	A. Kasilingam
14	Raj Bhavan		INC	K. Lakshminarayan		AIADMK	M. Saravanakumar
15	Oupalam		DMK	Annibal Kennedy		AIADMK	A. Anbalagan
16	Orleampeth		DMK	R. Siva		AINRC	G. Nehru
17	Nellithope		DMK	R. V. Janakiraman		AIADMK	Omsakthi Sekar
18	Mudaliarpet		DMK	M.A.S. Subramanian		AIADMK	A. Baskar
19	Ariankuppam		INC	T. Djeamourthy		AINRC	V. Sabapathy
20	Manavely		PMK	R. K. R. Anantharaman		AIADMK	P. Purushothaman
21	Embalam (SC)		INC	M. Candassamy		AINRC	P. Rajavelu
22	Nettapakkam (SC)		INC	S. Muthukumarasamy		AIADMK	L. Periyasamy
23	Bahour		INC	R. Radhakrishnan		AINRC	T. Thiagarajan
24	Nedungadu (SC)	DNF				AINRC	M. Chandhrakasu
25	Thirunallar		INC	R. Kamalakannan		AINRC	P. R. Siva
26	Karaikal North		INC	P. R. N. Thirumurugan		AIADMK	M. V. Omalingam
27	Karaikal South		DMK	A.M.H. Nazeem		DMDK	K. A. U. Asana
28	Neravy T R Pattinam		DMK	Anandan Geetha		AIADMK	Er. M. Selvaraj
29	Mahe		INC	E. Valsaraj		CPI(M)	T. K. Gangadharan
30	Yanam		INC	Malladi Krishna Rao		AIADMK	Manchala Satya Sai Kumar

Results

Parties and Coalitions		Votes	Vote %	Vote swing	Contested	Won	Change
	All India N.R. Congress	2,21,552	31.75		17	15	15
	Indian National Congress	1,85,149	26.53		17	7	3
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	95,960	13.75		10	5	2
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	74,552	10.68		10	2	5
	Pattali Makkal Katchi	17,342	2.48		2	0	2
	Bharatiya Janata Party	9,183	1.32		20	0
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	7,840	1.12		2	0
	Communist Party of India	6,541	0.94		1	0	1
	Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam	5,966	0.85%		1	0
	Independents	70,595	10.12		79	1	2
Total		6,97,900	100.0			30

Aftermath results

N. Rangasamy of AINRC, who won 15 seats, formed government without consulting the AIADMK and was accused of betraying the coalition by J. Jayalalithaa. AINRC secured a majority with the support of an independent V. M. C. Sivakumar. ^[4] However, the AINRC's hastiness in forming the government and refusal to share power with pre-election alliance partner AIADMK proved costly in the subsequent elections in 2016. ^[5]

Results by constituency

Results

Assembly Constituency		Winner				Runner Up				Margin
#	Name	Candidate	Party		Votes	Candidate	Party		Votes
Puducherry District
1	Mannadipet	T. P. R. Selvame		All India N.R. Congress	12412	K.P.K. Arul Murugan		Pattali Makkal Katchi	7696	4716
2	Thirubuvanai (SC)	P. Angalane		All India N.R. Congress	13733	K. Jayaraj		Indian National Congress	8965	4768
3	Ossudu (SC)	P. Karthikeyan		All India N.R. Congress	13327	A. Elumalai		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	8169	5158
4	Mangalam	C.Djeacoumar		Indian National Congress	14052	P. Anandabaskaran		All India N.R. Congress	11759	2293
5	Villianur	A. Namassivayam		Indian National Congress	13105	K. Nadarajan		All India N.R. Congress	11564	1541
6	Ozhukarai	N.G. Pannirselvam		All India N.R. Congress	9071	A.N. Balane		Independent	7505	1566
7	Kadirkamam	N. Rangaswamy		All India N.R. Congress	16323	V. Pethaperumal		Indian National Congress	6566	9757
8	Indira Nagar	N. Rangaswamy		All India N.R. Congress	20685	V. Aroumougam		Indian National Congress	4008	16677
9	Thattanchavady	Ashok Anand		All India N.R. Congress	14597	N. Arjunan		Independent	4091	10506
10	Kamaraj Nagar	V. Vaithilingam		Indian National Congress	12570	Nara. Kalainathan		Communist Party Of India	6541	6029
11	Lawspet	M. Vaithianathan		All India N.R. Congress	10189	V.P. Sivakolundhu		Indian National Congress	4757	5432
12	Kalapet	P.M.L. Kalyanasundaram		All India N.R. Congress	14132	M. O. H. F. Shahjahan		Indian National Congress	7766	6366
13	Muthialpet	Nandha. T. Saravanan		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	10364	A. Kasilingam		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	7388	2976
14	Raj Bhavan	K. Lakshminarayan		Indian National Congress	11398	M. Saravanakumar		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	4327	7071
15	Oupalam	A. Anbalagan		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	9536	Bussy N. Anand		Independent	6332	3204
16	Orleampeth	G.Nehru		All India N.R. Congress	10986	R. Siva		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	8368	2618
17	Nellithope	Omsakthi Sekar		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	13301	R. V. Janakiraman		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	8783	4518
18	Mudaliarpet	A. Baskar		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	17016	M.A.S. Subramanian		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	7289	9727
19	Ariankuppam	V.Sabapathy		All India N.R. Congress	13381	T. Djeamourthy		Indian National Congress	10750	2631
20	Manavely	P. Purushothaman		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	13979	R. K. R. Anantharaman		Pattali Makkal Katchi	9646	4333
21	Embalam (SC)	P. Rajavelu		All India N.R. Congress	12933	M. Candassamy		Indian National Congress	11465	1468
22	Nettapakkam (SC)	L. Periyasamy		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	14686	S. Muthukumarasamy		Indian National Congress	9219	5467
23	Bahour	T. Thiagarajan		All India N.R. Congress	12284	R. Radhakrishnan		Indian National Congress	10229	2055
Karaikal District
24	Nedungadu (SC)	M.Chandhrakasu		All India N.R. Congress	12474	A. Marimottou		Independent	4984	7490
25	Thirunallar	P. R. Siva		All India N.R. Congress	11702	R. Kamalakannan		Indian National Congress	10862	840
26	Karaikal North	P. R. N. Thirumurugan		Indian National Congress	12155	M.V.Omalingam		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	8795	3360
27	Karaikal South	A.M.H. Nazeem		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	8377	V.K. Ganapathy		Independent	6801	1576
28	Neravy T R Pattinam	V.M.C. Sivakumar		Independent	8860	Anandan Geetha		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	8502	358
Mahe District
29	Mahe	E. Valsaraj		Indian National Congress	13297	T.K.Gangadharan		Communist Party of India (Marxist)	7193	6104
Yanam District
30	Yanam	Malladi Krishna Rao		Indian National Congress	23985	Manchala Satya Sai Kumar		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	4867	19118

References

1. Election Commission of India. Schedule for holding General Election to the Legislative Assembly of Puducherry
2. "Campaigning ends in Puducherry". The Hindu . PTI. 11 April 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
3. "AINRC-AIADMK front secures majority in Puducherry". The Hindu . India Today. PTI. 13 May 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
4. "Jayalalithaa accuses Puducherry CM of betrayal". The Hindu . Economic Times. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
5. "Tamil Nadu polls 2016: No alliance with AINRC, says AIADMK in Puducherry". DNA. 18 April 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2022.