Puducherry assembly elections: A Johnkumar and V Vaithilingam among dynasty candidates in fray

NEW DELHI: The upcoming Puducherry assembly elections will see several candidates with strong political family backgrounds contesting across various constituencies. A total of 291 candidates are in the fray for the April 9 elections. Polling is held to elect 30 members of the 33-seat Puducherry legislative assembly, while the remaining three members are nominated by the central government. A Johnkumar: BJP leader A Johnkumar, a minister in the outgoing N Rangasamy-led government and the sitting MLA from Kamaraj Nagar, is contesting from Nellithope. He had earlier won the same seat as a Congress candidate in the 2016 elections. The constituency has remained under the family’s influence, with his son Richards Johnkumar winning it in 2021 on a BJP ticket. V Vaithilingam: A high-profile contest is set to take place in Thattanchavady, where former chief minister V Vaithilingam is contesting against the outgoing chief minister N Rangasamy. Vaithilingam, the son of Puducherry’s second chief minister V Venkatasubba Reddiar, is currently the Puducherry Congress president and the sitting Lok Sabha MP from the Union territory’s only Lok Sabha seat, also called Puducherry. The outcome of this contest is expected to have a bearing on the chief ministerial race. Vignesh Kannan: In the Raj Bhavan constituency, DMK candidate Vignesh Kannan is making his electoral debut. The son of former Puducherry minister P Kannan, he will take on Puducherry BJP chief VP Ramalingam in what is shaping up to be a closely watched contest.

The alliances

The elections will be a direct clash between the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition Congress-DMK alliance. The NDA in Puducherry is led by chief minister N Rangasamy's All India NR Congress, which will contest 16 seats. The BJP has been given the remaining 14 constituencies, of which it has given two each to the AIADMK and businessman Jose Charles Martin's newly formed Latchiya Jananayaga Katchi (LJK). The Congress and DMK will also contest under a similar arrangement of 16 and 14 seats, respectively.