2021 Puducherry Legislative Assembly election

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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]

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]

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.

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.

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

Party		Votes	Vote %	Swing	Conts	Won	Strike rate	Change
	All India N.R. Congress	216,249	25.85	2.3	16	10	62.50%	2
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	154,858	18.51	9.6	13	6	46.15%	4
	Bharatiya Janata Party	114,298	13.66	11.3	9	6	66.67%	6
	Independents	106,098	12.68			6	-	5
	Indian National Congress	131,393	15.71	14.9	14	2	8.33%	13
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	34,623	4.14	12.7	5	0	0.00%	4
	Naam Tamilar Katchi	28,189	3.37	2.9	28	0	0.00%
	Makkal Needhi Maiam	15,825	1.89	1.89	22	0	0.00%	New Party
	Communist Party of India	7,522	0.90	0.2	1	0	0.00%
	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:[18]

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

^[19]

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.

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