Centre nominates 3 BJP supporters as MLAs in Puducherry

PUDUCHERRY: The Centre has nominated former MLA K Venkatesan, former speaker of the legislative assembly V P Sivakolunthu's brother V P Ramalingam and BJP's Puducherry town president advocate R B Ashok Babu as the members of the legislative assembly.
Additional secretary (home) Govind Mohan passed an order in this regard on Monday.
The Union territory has 30 elected seats and three nominated seats.
BJP, which contested the 2021 assembly polls on nine seats, won six of them.
One of the six independent MLAs, Gollapalli Srinivas from Yanam has already pledged his support to the BJP.
With the nomination of the three MLAs and the support of an independent candidate, the strength of the party rose to 10 in the assembly.
BJP sources said two more independents are likely to join their party which will increase its strength of to 12.
All India NR Congress (AINRC), which led the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to victory, won 10 seats.
AINRC founder leader N Rangasamy, who was sworn in as the chief minister on May 7, tested positive for Covid-19 infection.
He is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Chennai. The cabinet is yet to be expanded.
AINRC and BJP have already arrived at a consensus and as per the agreement, BJP will have three ministerial berths including the post of deputy chief minister and AINRC three.