2021 Puducherry Legislative Assembly election

2021 Puducherry Legislative Assembly election

←  2016 6 April 2021 2026  →
All 30 seats in the Puducherry Legislative Assembly 16 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	83.38%(1.7%)
Majority party Minority party   Leader N. Rangaswamy R. Siva Party AINRC DMK Alliance NDA SPA+UPA Leader since 2011 2021 Leader's seat Thattanchavady (won) Yanam (lost) Villianur Last election 8 2 Seats before 7 [a] 2 Seats won 10 6 Seat change 2 4 Popular vote 216,249 154,858 Percentage 25.85% 18.51% Swing 2.25% 9.61%   Third party Fourth party   Leader A. Namassivayam V. Narayanasamy Party BJP INC Alliance NDA SPA+UPA Leader since 2021 2016 Leader's seat Mannadipet Did not contest Last election 0 15 Seats before 3 [b] 9 [c] Seats won 6 2 Seat change 6 13 Popular vote 114,298 131,393 Percentage 13.66% 15.71% Swing 11.26% 14.89%
Chief Minister before election V. Narayanasamy INC Elected Chief Minister N. Rangaswamy AINRC

The fifteenth legislative assembly election was held on 6 April 2021 to elect members from 30 constituencies of the 15th Puducherry Assembly in the union territory of Puducherry in India. The National democratic alliance has won a simple majority ^{[1] [2]}

Background

In the previous elections in 2016, the election brought a change of power as the All India N.R. Congress (AINRC), which had formed the government under N. Rangaswamy, lost its majority to the Indian National Congress (INC), led by V. Narayanasamy.

In the previous elections in 2016 Indian National Congress (INC) emerged as Single Largest Party ^[3] with 15 seats, with the support of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) the government was formed. ^[4] However, a trust vote was called after five MLAs of the Congress, including two ministers, and one DMK MLA resigned from the Assembly. Two of the Congress leaders had joined the BJP which is in alliance with Opposition NR Congress in the Union Territory. ^[5] The ruling party lost the trust vote after the speaker decided to accept votes from nominated MLAs on equal standing to the elected ones. The outgoing chief minister Narayanasamy commented that the Lieutenant Governor, who was a former president of BJP, had appointed members of her own party for all nominated seats, including one who garnished only 174 votes when he contested in regular elections. ^[5]

After the 2021 election, the Lt Governor once again granted all the non-elected MLAs to BJP, and thus making it the second largest party ^[6] with 1/3rd of the seats solely from nominated members rather than directly elected by the people. ^[7]

Schedule

Event	Date
Date for Nominations	12 March 2021
Last Date for filing Nominations	19 March 2021
Date for scrutiny of nominations	20 March 2021
Last date for withdrawal of candidatures	22 March 2021
Date of poll	6 April 2021
Date of counting	2 May 2021
Date before which the election shall be completed	24 May 2021

Parties and alliances

Constituency sharing of SPA+UPA allies for the 2021 Puducherry Legislative Assembly election

   Secular Progressive Alliance+United Progressive Alliance

Party			Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Indian National Congress	INC		V. Narayanasamy	14
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	DMK		R. Siva	13
	Communist Party of India	CPI		A. M. Saleem	1
	Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi	VCK		Thol. Thirumavalavan	1
	Independent	IND		Gollapalli Srinivas Ashok	1 [note 1]

CPIM contested the Muthialpet seat and supported the alliance in all other seats.

Constituency sharing of NDA allies for the 2021 Puducherry Legislative Assembly election

   National Democratic Alliance

Party			Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	All India N.R. Congress	AINRC		N. Rangaswamy	16
	Bharatiya Janata Party	BJP		A. Namassivayam	9
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	AIADMK		A. Anbalagan	5

PMK supports this alliance without contesting in any seat.

  Parties not in any coalition

Party			Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Makkal Needhi Maiam	MNM		Kamal Haasan	22
	Naam Tamilar Katchi	NTK		Seeman	28
	Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam	DMDK		Vijayakanth	26
	Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi	IJK		T. R. Paarivendhar	21
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	CPI(M)		K. Balakrishnan	1
	Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation	CPI(ML)L		Dipankar Bhattacharya	1

Candidates

List Of Candidates ^[8]

Constituency		UPA			NDA
#	Name	Party		Candidate	Party		Candidate
Puducherry District
1	Mannadipet		DMK	A. Krishnan		BJP	A. Namassivayam
2	Thirubuvanai (SC)		DMK	A. Mugilan		AINRC	B.Gobika
3	Ossudu (SC)		INC	P. Karthikeyan		BJP	J. Saravana Kumar
4	Mangalam		DMK	Sankumaravel		AINRC	C. Jayakumar
5	Villianur		DMK	R. Siva		AINRC	S.V.Sugumaran
6	Ozhukarai		VCK	D.Angalane		AINRC	G.Pannirselvam
7	Kadirkamam		INC	P. Selvanathan		AINRC	S.Ramesh
8	Indira Nagar		INC	M. Kannan		AINRC	V. Arumugam A.K.D.
9	Thattanchavady		CPI	K. Sethu Selvam		AINRC	N. Rangaswamy
10	Kamaraj Nagar		INC	M. O. H. F. Shahjahan		BJP	A. Johnkumar
11	Lawspet		INC	M. Vaithianathan		BJP	V. Saminathan
12	Kalapet		DMK	S. Muthuvel		BJP	P. M. L. Kalyanasundaram
13	Muthialpet		INC	S. Senthil Kumaran		AIADMK	Vaiyapuri Manikandan
14	Raj Bhavan		DMK	S.P. Sivakumar		AINRC	K. Lakshminarayanan
15	Oupalam		DMK	V. Anipaul Kennedy		AIADMK	A. Anbalagan
16	Orleampeth		DMK	S. Gopal		AIADMK	Omsakthi Sekar
17	Nellithope		DMK	V. Karthikeyan		BJP	Vivilian Richards Johnkumar
18	Mudaliarpet		DMK	L. Sampath		AIADMK	A. Baskar
19	Ariankuppam		INC	T. Jayamurthy		AINRC	R.Datchanamourtty
20	Manavely		INC	R. K. R. Anantharaman		BJP	Embalam R. Selvam
21	Embalam (SC)		INC	M. kandassamy		AINRC	U.LakshmiKandhan
22	Nettapakkam (SC)		INC	V.Vijayaveny		AINRC	P.Rajavelu
23	Bahour		DMK	R. Senthil Kumar		AINRC	N.Danavelu
Karaikal District
24	Nedungadu (SC)		INC	A. Marimuthu		AINRC	S.ChandraPriyanga
25	Thirunallar		INC	R. Kamalakannan		BJP	G. N. S. Rajasekaran
26	Karaikal North		INC	A. V. Subramanian		AINRC	P.R.N Thirumurugan
27	Karaikal South		DMK	A.M.H. Nazeem		AIADMK	K. A. U. Asana
28	Neravy T R Pattinam		DMK	M. Nagathiyagarajan		BJP	V. M. C. S. Manokaran
Mahe District
29	Mahe		INC	Ramesh Parambath		AINRC	V. P. Abdul Rahman
Yanam District
30	Yanam		IND	Gollapalli Srinivas Ashok		AINRC	N. Rangaswamy

Polls and surveys

Opinion polls

Date published	Polling agency				Lead
		NDA	UPA	Others
3 April 2021	Thanthi TV [9]	21-27	3-9	0	12-24
24 March 2021	Patriotic Voter [10]	17-18	10-12	0-3	6
15 March 2021	ABP News - CVoter [11]	16-20	10-14	0	2-10
8 March 2021	Times Now - CVoter [12]	18	12	0	6
1 March 2021	Patriotic Voter [10]	19	11	0	8

Exit polls

Date published	Polling agency				Lead
		NDA	UPA	Others
29 April 2021	Republic TV-CNX [13]	16-20	11-13	-	5-7
29 April 2021	Patriotic Voter [14]	18	12	-	6
29 April 2021	ABP-C Voter [13]	19-23	6-10	1-2	9-17

Voter Turnout

S.No.	District	Vote %
1.	Karaikal	80.07
2.	Puducherry	82.01
3.	Yanam	91.27 [15]
4.	Mahé	73.53 [15]
Total		81.69 [16]

Result

16	9	5
NDA	UPA	IND

Vote share by alliance

1. NDA (43.6%)
2. UPA (37.9%)
3. Others (18.5%)

Seat share by alliance

1. NDA (53.33%)
2. UPA (30%)
3. IND (16.67%)

Party		Votes	Vote %	Swing	Conts	Won	Change
	All India N.R. Congress	216,249	25.85	2.3	16	10	2
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	154,858	18.51	9.6	13	6	4
	Bharatiya Janata Party	114,298	13.66	11.3	9	6	6
	Independents	106,098	12.68			6	5
	Indian National Congress	131,393	15.71	14.9	14	2	13
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	34,623	4.14	12.7	5	0	4
	Naam Tamilar Katchi	28,189	3.37	2.9	28	0
	Makkal Needhi Maiam	15,825	1.89	1.89	22	0	New Party
	Communist Party of India	7,522	0.90	0.2	1	0
	None of the above	10,803	1.29	0.4
Total		8,36,562	100		30	30
Valid votes		8,36,562	99.88
Invalid votes		981	0.12
Votes cast / turnout		8,37,543	83.38
Registered voters		10,04,507
Source: [17]

Results by party and alliance

NDA		SEATS	UPA		SEATS	Others		SEATS
AINRC		10	INC		2	IND		5
BJP		6	DMK		6
			IND		1
Total		16	Total		9	Total		5
Change		4	Change		8	Change		4

^[18]

Results by district

District	Seats
		NDA	UPA	Oth.
Puducherry	23	14	5	4
Karaikal	5	2	2	1
Mahe	1	0	1	0
Yanam	1	0	1	0
Total	30	16	9	5

Results by constituency

Results ^{[19] [20]}

Constituency & Turnout			Winner					Runner Up					Margin
#	Name	%	Candidate	Party		Votes	%	Candidate	Party		Votes	%
Puducherry District
1	Mannadipet	89.10	A. Namassivayam		BJP	14,939	51.82	A. Krishnan		DMK	12,189	42.28	2,750
2	Thirubuvanai (SC)	87.61	P. Angalane		IND	10,597	36.78	B. Kobiga		AINRC	8,238	28.60	2,359
3	Ossudu (SC)	89.50	A. K. Saravanankumar		BJP	14,121	48.78	P. Karthikeyan		INC	12,241	42.29	1,880
4	Mangalam	87.75	C. Djeacoumar		AINRC	16,972	50.89	Sun. Kumaravel		DMK	14,221	42.64	2,751
5	Villianur	83.08	R. Siva		DMK	19,653	55.73	S.V. Sugumaran		AINRC	12,703	36.02	6,950
6	Ozhukarai	77.83	M. Sivasankar		IND	11,940	36.50	N.G. Pannir Selvam		AINRC	11,121	34.00	819
7	Kadirkamam	78.04	S. Ramesh		AINRC	17,775	65.82	P. Selvanadane		INC	5,529	20.47	12,246
8	Indira Nagar	82.04	A. K. D. Arumugam		AINRC	21,841	74.77	M. Kannan		INC	3,310	11.33	18,531
9	Thattanchavady	76.89	N. Rangasamy		AINRC	12,978	55.02	K. Sethu Selvam		CPI	7,522	31.89	5,456
10	Kamaraj Nagar	78.65	A. Johnkumar		BJP	16,687	56.11	M. O. H. F. Shahjahan		INC	9,458	31.80	7,229
11	Lawspet	80.67	M. Vaithianathan		INC	14,592	55.60	V. Saminathan		BJP	8,891	33.88	5,701
12	Kalapet	85.87	P. M. L. Kalyanasundaram		BJP	13,277	44.63	A. Senthil Ramesh		IND	9,769	32.84	3,508
13	Muthialpet	78.64	J. Prakash Kumar		IND	8,778	37.48	Vaiyapuri Manikandan		AIADMK	7,844	33.49	934
14	Raj Bhavan	73.93	K. Lakshminarayanan		AINRC	10,096	51.86	S.P. Sivakumar		DMK	6,364	32.69	3,732
15	Oupalam	85.06	Annibal Kennedy		DMK	13,433	56.64	A. Anbalagan		AIADMK	8,653	36.48	4,780
16	Orleampeth	81.95	G. Nehru Kuppusamy		IND	9,580	47.29	S. Gopal		DMK	7,487	36.96	2,093
17	Nellithope	82.56	V. R. Johnkumar		BJP	11,757	42.26	V. Karthikeyan		DMK	11,261	40.47	496
18	Mudaliarpet	83.01	L. Sambath		DMK	15,151	51.30	A. Baskar		AIADMK	10,972	37.15	4,179
19	Ariankuppam	84.23	R. Baskar Datchanamourtty		AINRC	17,858	54.32	T. Jayamoorthy		INC	11,440	34.80	6,418
20	Manavely	86.74	Embalam R. Selvam		BJP	17,225	57.54	R. K. R. Anantharaman		INC	9,093	30.37	8,132
21	Embalam (SC)	88.76	U. Lakshmikandhan		AINRC	15,624	50.85	M. Candassamy		INC	13,384	43.56	2,240
22	Nettapakkam (SC)	86.93	P. Rajavelu		AINRC	15,978	56.82	V. Vijayaveny		INC	9,340	33.21	6,638
23	Bahour	89.60	R. Senthilkumar		DMK	11,789	44.56	N. Dhanavelou		AINRC	11,578	43.76	201
Karaikal District
24	Nedungadu (SC)	84.92	S. Chandra Priyanga		AINRC	10,774	40.20	A. Marimuthu		INC	8,560	31.94	2,214
25	Thirunallar	85.93	P. R. Siva		IND	9,551	36.45	S. Rajasekaran		BJP	8,416	31.32	1,380
26	Karaikal North	79.43	P. R. N. Thirumurugan		AINRC	12,704	44.85	A. V. Subramanian		INC	12,569	44.38	135
27	Karaikal South	76.54	A.M.H. Nazeem		DMK	17,401	71.15	K. A. U. Asana		AIADMK	5,367	21.95	12,034
28	Neravy T R Pattinam	83.40	M. Nagathiyagarajan		DMK	14,496	55.74	V. M. C. S. Manokaran		BJP	8,985	34.55	5,511
Mahe District
29	Mahe	75.29	Ramesh Parambath		INC	9,744	41.63	N. Haridasan Master		IND	9,444	40.35	300
Yanam District
30	Yanam	92.31	Gollapalli Srinivas Ashok		IND	17,131	49.04	N. Rangasamy		AINRC	16,475	47.17	655

Government formation

Main article: Fourth Rangaswamy ministry

Even though results for the election were declared on 2 May, the government formation was finalized on 8 June. The results were with NDA winning 16 seats (AIRNC :- 10, BJP :- 6) and UPA winning 9 seats (DMK :- 6, INC :- 2, Independent :- 1) and 5 Independents not backed by either of the alliance won. Immediately the NDA unanimously elected N. Rangaswamy from AIRNC as the CM, and the UPA elected R.Siva from the DMK as the Leader Of Opposition. Post results the central government nominated 3 MLAs affiliated to the BJP, thereby taking NDA to 19 seats and BJP to 9. Furthermore, before the swearing in of the government, 3 Independent MLAs pledged support to AIRNC and 2 Independent MLAs pledged support to BJP, also the 1 Independent MLA backed by UPA during election later switched allegiance to BJP. The NDA MLAs increased to 25 and UPA decreased to 8. Even after the swearing in ceremony of the CM, the talks between AIRNC and BJP on cabinet composition and assembly speaker continued for more than a month. On 8 June the alliance announced that the BJP would get 2 ministers and the post of assembly speaker, while AIRNC will get 3 ministers.

See also

• 2021 elections in India
• 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
• 2019 Indian general election in Puducherry

References

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Notes

1. includes by–election results, NR Congress lost 1 seats and DMK gained 1 seat
2. Nominated MLAs
3. Includes 1 Congress MLA who defected from the party

1. Congress did not contest in Yanam and extended support to the independent.'"`UNIQ--ref-00000021-QINU`"'