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Pondicherry
DPA emerges victorious
Special Correspondent
| AIADMK front wins 7 seats and Independents three |
JOYOUS OCCASION: Congress volunteers shower flowers on Chief Minister N. Rangasamy's vehicle after he won the Thattanchavady seat with a thumping majority in Pondicherry on Thursday.
Pondicherry: The Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) led by the Congress has captured 20 seats in the elections for the 30 member Pondicherry Territorial Assembly.
The AIADMK combine has won seven seats, leaving three to Independents.
It remains to be seen if the DPA goes in for a coalition government, or the partners support a Congress regime from outside. A final decision is expected on Friday, when the Congress emissary Veerappa Moily meets the DMK president M. Karunanidhi. What holds good for Tamil Nadu will be extended to the Union Territory, the Congress sources here say. The Congress has maintained during the recent election campaign that a Congress led alliance government would be formed. If it happens, this would be first time after a gap of twenty-six years that the Congress and the DMK come together to form a coalition Ministry. The Congress has annexed ten out of 16 seats it contested leaving 14 seats to its allies. Chief Minister N. Rangasamy won hands down from Thattanchavady. The DMK won seven of the 11 seats it contested, while the Pattalli Makkal Katchi has emerged victorious from Ariyankuppam and Mannadipet.
The CPI candidate and former Agriculture Minister R Viswanathan has regained the Reddiarpalayam seat after defeating the AIADMK nominee A.M Krishnamoorthy.
No difficulty
The 20 members strong DPA would thus have no practical difficulty in forming the next government at the earliest.
The DPA suffered a major reverse in the elections. The convenor of the Pondicherry DMK R V Janakiraman was defeated by his immediate AIADMK rival and ex-serviceman Om Sakthi Segar in Nellithope. Mr Janakiraman was holding the seat without break by emerging victorious in all the polls held in 1985, 1990, 1991, 1996 and 2001.
This is the first time Janakiraman had faced defeat in Nellithope, considered his pocket borough.
The AIADMK-led front, which fought the polls under the banner Democratic People's Alliance, won 7 seats. While the AIADMK has won three seats (two in Pondicherry and one in Karaikal) out of sixteen seats it contested, the Puducherry Munnetra Congress (PMC) emerged victorious from three seats.
The MDMK has wrested Tirunallar in Karaikal from the Congress. For PMC the sad outcome of the election battle was that its founder P Kannan was among the PMC nominees who were defeated.
Mr Kannan was defeated in Modeliarpet constituency in a virtual triangular fight by the DMK nominee Dr M A S Subramanian who retains the seat.
The three segments where PMC was successful are Cassicade, Bussy and Karaikal (South).
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