PUDUCHERRY: Former Union Minister of State V Narayanasamy has made yet another foray into the Territorial politics with his appointment as in-charge of Political Affairs of Mudaliarpet Assembly constituency by Pradesh Congress Committee on Thursday. This has sparked speculation on his contesting from the constituency in 2016 Assembly elections in the UT.
Narayanasamy, who lost the previous Lok Sabha elections, has so far remained at the helm of affairs of Congress party in Puducherry. But, now, specifically given the task of nurturing the constituency and strengthening it for a win for the party candidate, could apparently mean nurturing the constituency for him as well.
At present, the Speaker of the Territorial Assembly V Sabapathy is the MLA of the constituency elected on the ruling AINRC ticket.
However, PPCC president AV Subramanian, who announced the in-charges for all the 30 constituencies to prepare the party for poll, denies any such motive.
“The appointees are not contestants, their task is to strengthen the party in every ward by taking up their issues and getting closer to them”, said Subramanian.
However, a look at the list indicates that all the MLAs have been put in charge of their respective constituencies as well as ex-MLAs in charge of constituencies they lost. Besides some who fared well in the previous elections but lost have been given charge of those constituencies, indicating they could be the prospective candidates.
According to a statement, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly V Vaithilingam has been given the charge of Kamaraj Nagar (he was elected to the Assembly) and Thirubuvanani (SC); A V Subramanian who hails from Karaikal himself is in- charge of Uppalam, (AIADMK constituency held by A Anbazagan for last three terms); E Valsaraj, MLA, would take care of Mahe from where he has been elected for 25 years.
Meanwhile, MLA A Namassivayam takes care of his Villianur constituency and the adjoining Mannadipet (now held by AINRC ), MLA C Jayakumar has been put in charge of his Mangalam constituency and MLA K Lakshminarayanan takes care of his Raj Bhavan and the adjoining Muthialpet (held by DMK).
P K Devadoss has been put in charge of Ossudu (held by AINRC); T Jayamurthy, ex-MLA in-charge of Ariyankuppam (held by AINRC ); A John Kumara, a new entrant to the party, takes care of Nellithope, which is presently held by Om Shakthi Sekhar of AIADMK; V Muthunarayanan takes charge of Nettapakkam (SC) which is now held by L Periyasamy of AIADMK, while G Ravichandran has been put in-charge of Oulgaret. V P Sivakozhandu of Lawspet and Thattanchavady while V Arumugham is given charge of Indira Nagar (AINRC stronghold) and V Pethaperumal in charge of Kadirkamam, Chief Minister N Rangasamy’s constituency.
K Vinayagamurthy is in-charge of Manavely, former Minister M Kandasamy is in-charge of Embalam and Bahour(both held by Mnisters P Rajavelu and T Thiagarajan respectively). Former Minister MOHF Shajahan has been given charge of Kalapet, while MLA Malladi Krishna Rao is in-charge of his Yanam constituency.
PNR Thirumurugan MLA is in-charge of Karaikal (north) and AV J Selvamuthur with A Baskar have been alloted Negundagu.