With the nominations for the April 9 elections in Puducherry to come to a close on March 23, the political parties in the Union Territory are still unsettled with back to back negotiations and hard bargains. In a small union territory where coalitions and alliance equations always decide the victory, both the BJP and the Congress fronts find themselves in a subtle pressure as their allies are threatening to walk away.
There can be no excitement lost in the battle for Puducherry. With the negotiation stretching against the hard electoral deadline, sources in the INDIA bloc and the NDA have interesting backroom stories to share. While chief minister Rangaswamy had made the going difficult for the NDA, in the INDIA bloc, Stalin made it tough for the Congress by interviewing the aspirants for all the 30 constituencies on March 16, the day when the nominations began.
The seat-sharing within the AINRC-led NDA which seemed settled till a week before is now hanging in balance with chief minister and All India NR Congress leader N. Rangaswamy failing to turn up for a meeting with Manshuk Mandaviya, the BJP in-charge for Puducherry. Rangaswamy has sent strong message to the BJP through his silence since March 17. He has indicated that he could explore options beyond the alliance.
The AINRC-BJP combine had earlier concluded the seat-sharing negotiations. Rangaswamy’s party will contest in 16 seats and the BJP and AIADMK will contest in 14 seats. Out of the 14, BJP had agreed to give two to the AIADMK. The agreement went for a toss on March 17, a day after the nominations for the April 9 election began in the Union Territory as Rangaswamy was not happy with the seat-sharing negotiations. The reason is the BJP's decision to allot two seats from its share to newly floated Latchiya Jananayaga Katchi, floated by businessman Jose Charles Martin.
The arithmetic, which was decided well before the election notification had not translated on the ground as both the BJP and AINRC want to contest from common constituencies. In several places, the two parties are into parallel campaigns choosing their own faces. As of now, Rangaswamy who is the face of the alliance and the central figure of Puducherry politics, is in no mood to budge. Rangaswamy feels that his image as ‘People’s CM’ can help him play on the ground beyond the BJP’s organisational push and its double engine rhetoric.
Rangaswamy, who is visibly upset with BJP’s hard bargain, seems to have opened a new channel with Vijay’s Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam. Interestingly, TVK’s general secretary Bussy N. Anand who hails from Puducherry was groomed by none other than Rangaswamy.
If the ruling NDA is struggling to settle the arithmetic equations, the INDIA bloc is in complete mess. DMK’s sitting MLAs have decided to file nominations even when the negotiations with the Congress are under way. The Congress-DMK combine is down and under as the Congress wants to contest in 18 seats. The DMK is not willing to give up and is flexing its muscles to contest in more seats. Pointing to its strike rate in 2021 - it won in six seats - the DMK wants to contest in more seats. The first round of formal talks began on Sunday and it only ended inconclusive. The DMK which began the seat-sharing talks with the Congress suggested that the national partner allocate seats to CPI, CPI(M) and VCK, before coming to the negotiation table. While the DMK leads the alliance in Tamil Nadu, the Congress said it leads the alliance in Puducherry and that the regional party should go by its “time tested” formula. But the talks have led nowhere with the Congress still fighting hard to convince the DMK.
While Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) had already announced its candidates for 28 out of the 30 constituencies, Vijay’s TVK is in both sides, talking with Rangaswamy on one side and moving with the Congress on the other. The party, which has been allotted the whistle symbol like in Tamil Nadu, wants to make inroads into Puducherry politics. The idea is not to project anyone as the chief ministerial candidate and field candidates in all 30 constituencies.
However, in a small Union territory like Puducherry, the victory margins are always thin, as the total electorate is only 9.44 lakh. And the UT’s politics has always been shaped not by rhetoric but by the popular faces, personal equations, blood relationship and loyalties. But in 2026, time factor has added to the list. The alliances that once appeared to be settled and winning are hanging in balance.
