PUDUCHERRY: For the first time in the history of Puducherry BJP entered the citadels of power with the swearing-in of ministers in the NDA government led by N Rangasamy
After a long wait of more than one and half month, finally, five ministers, two from BJP and three from AINRC were sworn in on Sunday.
A Namassivayam(BJP), K Lakshminarayanan (AINRC), C Djeacoumar (AINRC) , Chandira Priyanga (AINRC) and A K Saravanan Kumar (BJP) were administered the oath of office and official secrecy by Lt Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan at a simple function held outside the gates of Raj Nivas on Sunday.
Chief Minister N Rangasamy, Speaker Embalam R Selvam, Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar, DGP Ranveer Singh among others were present on the occasion.
MLAs of AINRC, BJP, independent MLAs as well as opposition Congress MLA Ramesh Parambath from Mahe were present on the occasion.
Tamilnadu BJP President L Murugan, Puducherry state BJP president V Saminathan were also present.
The ministry is a combination of experienced and debutants as well as turncoats and loyalists.
For Namassivayam it his fourth stint, while Lakshminararayanan becomes minister for second time and Djeacoumar becomes the minister for the third time.
Chandira Priyanga, elected from Nedungadu (SC) constituency in Karaikal region of the Union territory and Saravanan Kumar elected from Ossudu(SC) becomes minister for the first time .
Namassivayam, the former PWD minister in the Congress government led by V Narayanasamy, shifted to BJP, just before the elections. He also moved from the Villianur constituency and won the election from the Mannadipet constituency. He is likely to be the home minister in the NDA government of AINRC and BJP. Namassivayam is the number two minister.
Lakshminarayanan, the five-time MLA and former Education, Revenue and Tourism minister (2001 -2005) also switched over to AINRC from Congress .just before the elections. An advocate, he had been the Parliamentary Secretary to CM in the previous Congress-DMK government.
Theni C Jayakumar, who was earlier Local Administration minister in the DMK-TMC government from 1996-1999 and again briefly for six months in the congress govt led by P Shanmugham. He had been part of AINRC since Rangasamy floated the party in 2011.
Chandira Priyanga becomes the second woman minister in the UT, after 41 years after Renuka Appadurai of INC(I) who was the first woman minister in 1980 in the DMK-Congress government led by D Ramachandran.
Chanadira Priyanga is the daughter of M Chandirakasu, who was a minister in the earlier AINRC government of Rangasamy in 2011. Chandira Priyanga represents the outlying region of Karaikal, a Scheduled caste community and also women. She is the first scheduled caste woman to become a minister in Puducherry.