Puducherry polls: Narayanasamy cites coordination work as reason for not contesting

PUDUCHERRY: During a press meet at the Congress party head office on Sunday, former Chief Minister Narayanasamy said that he won’t be contesting in upcoming Assembly elections as he has the responsibility to look after the party’s election works. 

“Both Sonia and Rahul had asked me to contest, but I decided to look after the election works as the Congress State president, AV Subramanian, will be contesting. Therefore, I decided not to contest. In many States, CM didn’t contest elections and it is not an issue because there won’t be any change in opinion,” he said. 

Narayanasamy further said, “The election department in UT should act in an unbiased manner. After scrutiny, the election commission releases the accepted candidates' list on the next day which is against the rule. This election should be conducted as per rule and peacefully."

"The Central government agencies camping in Puducherry are taking steps against a few people. This is a complete abuse of power. The party also placed baseless complaints against me and the Congress government.” 

“Kiran Bedi closed cotton mills and the Centre approved it. She also shut down many government undertaken organisations and refused to give salary to the people who worked there. The Centre supported all these moves and is now blaming the Congress government. Union Minister Amit Shah said that they have allocated Rs 15,000 crore to Puducherry and that money was misused too. I have asked them to prove it, but they are yet to do it. If Amit Shah fails to prove the allegations he should apologize."

"Since Malladi Krishna Rao supported N R Congress in Yanam, selection of candidate got delayed. Congress will extend support to independent candidate Kolapalli Ashok in Yanam. NR Congress is biggest party in BJP alliance. They should clarify whether N R Congress or BJP lead the alliance.”