Barely three days after All India Congress Committee (AICC) Puducherry in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao said that former chief minister V Narayanasamy will not be contesting the 2021 assembly elections, Narayanasamy claimed that interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi wants him to contest the polls.
“Some media reports stated I am not fighting the elections because the high command didn’t give a ticket to me, which is untrue. Sonia Gandhi asked me to fight the election,” the senior Congress leader said.
The former CM further said that he will campaign in all the constituencies in the Union Territory.
“Our current Puducherry party president is contesting the election. Therefore, there should be coordination in campaigning. We have decided that I should also campaign in all constituencies,” Narayanasamy said, according to news agency ANI.
Narayanasamy had earlier contested from Nellithope, which he represented after winning the bypoll in 2016. This time, however, the seat has been handed over to DMK candidate V Karthikeyan.
The DMK-Congress alliance in Puducherry is gearing up to give the AIADMK-AINRC-BJP coalition a tough fight, though it’s perceived to have an edge in the April 6 polls.
While certain opinion polls have forecast an easy win for the AIADMK-AINRC-BJP pact, Congress leaders strongly believe that they will return to power.
“While the first two have some representation, what is the situation of BJP? It has a miniscule percentage of votes in the last elections and there is no grassroot support for that party in any constituency of the state,” Narayanasamy said, according to news agency IANS.
The Narayanaswamy-led Congress-DMK dispensation was forced to resign after many Congress MLAs and ministers switched camps to the BJP earlier this year.
