Puducherry, Jul 13 (PTI) The swearing-in ceremony for the newly appointed Puducherry Minister A John Kumar and three nominated MLAs is set to take place on July 14.
Lieutenant Governor K Kailashnathan will administer the oath of office to the newly appointed BJP minister at Raj Nivas at 1.30 pm, while Speaker R Selvam will swear in the nominated legislators—V Selvam, G N S Rajasekaran, and E Theeppainthan—at his chamber in the Legislative Assembly complex, sources said.
The nominations were made to fill the vacancies created by the resignations of V P Ramalingam, K Venkatesan, and R B Ashok Babu on June 27. The three members, affiliated with the BJP, were appointed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs soon after the AINRC-BJP alliance secured victory in the 2021 Assembly elections in the union territory.
The Ministry of Home Affairs approved the appointments of John Kumar and three BJP-nominated legislators on July 11, as part of a reshuffle initiated by the party in both the Cabinet and its legislative wing.
With Kumar’s induction, the strength of the over four-year-old N Rangasamy-led Cabinet will be restored to six, comprising four AINRC Ministers (including the Chief Minister) and two from the BJP.
John Kumar, who represents the Kamaraj Nagar Assembly constituency, has served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister since his election in 2021.
The vacancy arose after A K Sai J Saravanan resigned as Minister for Adi Dravidar Welfare on June 27.
A former Congress leader, Kumar, joined the BJP ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections. His son, Richard John Kumar, also a BJP MLA, represents the Nellithope constituency.
The saffron party currently holds six elected members in the Assembly, while its ally AINRC has ten.