1964 Pondicherry Legislative Assembly election

Elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry took place on 23 August 1964 to constitute the Second Assembly of Pondicherry.Rahman, S. A. The Beautiful India. Pondicherry. New Delhi: Reference Press, 2006. pp. 138–139 These were the first Legislative Assembly elections after the formation of the new Union Territory.Das, Manoj. Pondicherry. New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India, 1976. p. 20 The elections marked the end of the rule of Edouard Goubert in Pondicherry.

Outgoing Assembly The outgoing Legislative Assembly had 39 members (out of whom 25 belonged to the Indian National Congress, 11 to the People's Front (Makkaḷ Munnaṇi (Tamil:மக்கள் முன்னணி), 1 to the Praja Socialist Party and 2 independents).Current Events Year Book. "Current Events" Publication Dept., 1966. p. 386

Delimitation As per The Union Territories Act, 1963, thirty members would be elected through direct suffrage.Grover, Verinder, and Ranjana Arora. Encyclopaedia of India and Her States. Vol. 10. New Delhi [India]: Deep & Deep, 1996. p. 11Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1964 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF PONDICHERRY Before the Elections to the Pondicherry Legislative Assembly were held in August 1964, the constituencies were delimited by the Delimitation Commission (as per Delimitation Commission Act, 1962) and the entire territory was divided into 30 single-member constituencies-21 for Pondicherry region, 6 for Karaikal region, 2 for Mahe region and 1 for Yanam region. Out of these 5 seats were reserved for Scheduled Castes, four in Pondicherry region and one in Karaikal region.

Contenders A total of 85 candidates contested the election. Three of the candidates were women (Saraswathi Subbiah of the People's Front, P. Angammal and Padmini Chandrasekaran from the Congress Party).

Congress Party In the run-up to the election, there was dissent within the local unit of the Indian National Congress over the nomination of candidates. Until these polls Édouard Goubert had maintained control over the local Congress Party apparatus. Goubert had been pro-colonialist who had switched sides just as French power ended in Pondicherry. He had survived politically through political intrigues and maintaining the image that he could keep the communists from seizing power in the Union Territory. Now a group led by V. Venkatasubha Reddiar challenged his hegemony. Reddiar had been the Minister of Planning in the Pondicherry cabinet since 1954, and enjoyed the support by a sector of contractors and bootleggers. K. Kamaraj, the president of the Congress Party in the Madras State, was called on to heal the split.Seminar on State Politics in India, Iqbal Narain, D. B. Mathur, and Sushil Kumar. State Politics in India. Meerut: Meenakshi Prakashan, 1967. pp. 534–535 The Madras State Minister for Industries R. Venkataraman (acting on behalf of the All India Congress Committee) was assigned the task to ensure that the party was reunited for the polls.Report of the General Secretary. Indian National Congress. All India Congress Committee. 1965. p. 59 The AICC wholeheartedly sided with Reddiar. Effectively Goubert's group was marginalised in the process. The Congress Party contested all 30 seat in the election. However, Goubert organised some of his sympathizers to contest as independents. In total there were 38 independent candidates, including Goubert's followers.

People's Front Apart from the intra-Congress conflict, the main contender was the communist-led People's Front. The People's Front contested 17 out of the 30 seats.

Result The Congress Party candidates obtained 91,338 votes (54.3%), the People's Front 30,495 votes (18.2%) and independents gathered 46,218 votes (27.58%). One candidate, Kamishetty Sri Parasurama Vara Prasada Rao Naidu (Congress), was elected unopposed from the Yanam constituency. 17 out of the 22 Congress candidates elected belonged to the Reddiar group, the remaining five were part of the Goubert group. Another three pro-Goubert independents were elected.

Reddiar himself won the Nettapacom seat with 4,965 votes (83.54% of the votes in the constituency). Goubert won the Raj Nivas seat, with 2,722 votes (78.47%) A fourth independent (unaffiliated with Goubert) also emerged victorious. Four People's Front candidates were elected, a result which was seen as a backlash for the communists. Amongst the elected People's Front members was V. Subbiah, who won the Modeliarpeth seat with 3,878 votes (51.80%).

The results of 1964 election were summarized below Parties and Coalitions Won Votes Vote % Change 22 91,33854.31 430,495 31.69 446,218 27.5 1

List of winners Winner, runner-up, voter turnout, and victory margin in every constituencyAssembly ConstituencyTurnout WinnerRunner UpMargin #k Names% Candidate Party Votes% Candidate Party Votes% 1 Muthialpet 81.41% P. Shanmugam 1,726 33.06% Thangaprakasam 1,429 27.37% 297 2 Kurusukuppam 72.81% Padmini Chandrasekaran 3,605 53.23% M. Murugesa Mudaliar 3,168 46.77% 437 3 Cassicade 71.05% A. S. Kankeyan 1,799 39.98% Kuppusamy Mudaliar 1,182 26.27% 617 4 Raj Bhavan 65.47% Édouard Goubert 2,722 78.47% S. Pakiam 662 19.08% 2,060 5 Bussy 65.11% C. M. Achraff 2,367 62.72% Paul Ambroise 789 20.91% 1,578 6 Oupalam 70.78% G. Perumal Raja 3,098 55.47% D. Munisamy 2,487 44.53% 611 7 Nellithope 72.56% N. Ranganathan 3,627 50.11% R. T. Purushothaman 3,611 49.89% 16 8 Mudaliarpet 82.77% V. Subbiah 3,878 51.80% K. Srinivasan 3,609 48.20% 269 9 Ariankuppam 78.18% P. Rathinavelu 3,376 48.82% V. Thulasingam 3,135 45.34% 241 10 Kuruvinatham 87.87% K. R. Subramaniya Padayachi 3,167 47.91% R. L. Purushothaman 1,760 26.62% 1,407 11 Bahour 79.68% Thangavel Clamanso 2,612 49.81% A. Siva 2,405 45.86% 207 12 Nettapakkam 88.20% V. Venkatasubba Reddiar 4,965 83.54% S. Ramaputhiran 978 16.46% 3,987 13 Thirubuvanai 77.95% R. Kulandai 3,698 61.93% S. Thangavely 2,273 38.07% 1,425 14 Mannadipet 84.37% Manickavasaga Reddiar 3,369 51.40% M. Venugopal 1,347 20.55% 2,022 15 Ossudu 68.19% N. Harikrishnan 3,027 55.07% S. Perumal 2,470 44.93% 557 16 Villianur 81.30% Thillai Kanakarasu 4,025 57.70% M. Abdul Rahiman 2,518 36.10% 1,507 17 Embalam 79.00% P. Angammal 4,924 79.83% S. Andavan 1,244 20.17% 3,680 18 Oulgaret 79.46% N. Damodaran 1,144 18.64% S. Govindasamy 2,511 40.92% -1,367 19 Kalapet 79.37% Jeevarathina Udayar 4,078 58.58% P. Narayanasamy 1,555 22.34% 2,523 20 Poudousaram 72.93% N. Gurusamy 2,698 46.86% G. Rajamanickam 2,426 42.14% 272 21 Cotchery 83.69% G. Nagarajan 4,313 70.34% S. Sokalingame 1,614 26.32% 2,699 22 Karaikal North 80.80% Farook Maricar 4,211 56.39% M. Sembulingam 2,033 27.23% 2,178 23 Karaikal South 79.16% Mohamed Ibrahim Maricar 2,491 50.70% Ramassamy Pillai 2,422 49.30% 69 24 Neravy T R Pattinam 86.47% Nagamuttou Pillai 3,222 56.80% Ramassamy 2,163 38.13% 1,059 25 Grand’ Aldee 86.96% V. M. C. Varada Pillai 3,544 70.58% Pandarinathan 1,477 29.42% 2,067 26 Thirunallar 85.64% Subarayalu 4,000 68.92% Sathiamourthy 1,772 30.53% 2,228 27 Nedungadu 86.15% P. Shanmugam 3,697 65.60% Maric Paul Andre Alias Paul 1,939 34.40% 1,758 28 Mahe 90.18% Valavil Kesavan 2,283 50.14% I. K. Kumaran 2,270 49.86% 13 29 Palloor 92.18% Vanmeri Nadeyi Purushothaman 2,436 64.62% Poothara Narayanan 1,334 35.38% 1,102 30 Yanam - Kamisetty Parasuram Naidu Elected Unopposed

Election of CM A meeting of the members of Pondicherry Congress Legislature Party to elect its new Leader was held on 31 August 1964. R. Venkatraman, then Minister of Industries, Madras was presentin the meeting as Observer of the AICC. VenkataSubba Reddiar elected was unanimously elected Leader.

New assembly and cabinet After the election the Congress Party formed a four-member cabinet led by Reddiar. Likewise Reddiar was elected, unanimously, as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party in the new assembly.

1964 Pondicherry Legislative Assembly election

Bron en licentie