At a time when the NDA in Tamil Nadu has turned out to be a non-starter, the BJP in the neighbouring Puducherry seems to have drawn a clear strategy aiming to make a comeback in alliance with chief minister N. Rangaswamy’s AINRC. Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit and his meeting with Rangaswamy on Saturday had put an end to all the speculations about the AINRC quitting the NDA and fight the elections on its own.
After the meeting with Amit Shah at Karaikal in Puducherry, Rangaswamy announced that his All India NR Congress (AINRC) will continue to be in alliance for the upcoming 2026 assembly elections. “N R Congress’s alliance with the BJP continues. We will fight the polls together. We will discuss various other issues including seat sharing the due course,” Rangaswamy told reporters after his meeting with Shah at a private hotel in Karaikal. The alliance equations between the AINRC and the BJP had reached a feverish pitch as Rangaswamy felt that the BJP was aiming for the chief minster’s chair for Namasivvayam, who defected from the Congress ahead of the 2021 elections.
Amit Shah kickstarted NDA’s campaign for the 2026 assembly poll at Karaikal, setting the tone for strategising the election. Speaking at the Booth Level Agents (BLA) conference Shah appealed to the people of Puducherry to give the NDA government “another chance.” Stating that the alliance had won 44 per cent votes in the assembly polls in 2021 he sounded with confidence that the NDA’s victory margin would increase this time, as the double-engine government with Narendra Modi in Delhi and Rangaswamy in Puducherry has delivered a development oriented rule. During the conference Shah also accused the Congress and former chief minister V. Narayanaswamy of turning Puducherry into an ATM of the Gandhi family during his rule before 2021. “Narayanaswamy turned the union territory into the ATM of the Gandhi family. They also sold PG and diploma seats and also seats reserved for the SC and ST to wealthy individuals to make money. Transport individuals were given free rein to trouble the public,” Shah said.
While the conference was to kickstart the campaign, Amit Shah and Rangaswamy’s closed door meeting ironed out all the issues in the NDA. While there were talks about NR Congress choosing to quit the alliance, the meeting and Rangaswamy’s statement has put an end to all the speculation around the alliance. In 2021 the NR Congress contested in 16 out of the 30 assembly segments, and the BJP contested from nine seats while its another partner AIADMK had five seats. While the AIADMK drew a blank, the N R Congress won 10 seats and the BJP 6 and formed the government in 2021. But this time around the BJP aims for more number of constituencies and also aims for the chief minister’s chair, which was beginning to cause a strain in the alliance. But the meeting between Shah and Rangaswamy seems to have sorted out all the discussions around the numbers.
