The elections to elect the members of the 15th Puducherry Assembly was held on 6 April 2021. The elections were held for all the 30 constituencies of the Puducherry Legislative Assembly.

The National Democratic Alliance won a simple majority in the elections, and N. Rangaswamy of the All India N. R. Congress was sworn in as the chief minister for the fourth time.

Background Elections to a legislative assembly in India are usually held once in five years, and the members of the legislative assembly are directly elected to serve five year terms from single-member constituencies. The previous assembly elections were held in May 2021 to elect the 30 members of the 14th Puducherry Assembly.

In the previous election, the Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance formed the government after winning 17 of the 30 seats, and V. Narayanasamy sworn in as the chief minister. All India N.R. Congress (AINRC), which had formed the government under N. Rangaswamy after the 2011 elections, won eight seats, and Rangaswamy became the leader of the opposition in the assembly.

In February 2021, a trust vote was called by the lieutenant governor after five members of the Congress including two ministers, and one member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) resigned from the assembly. With the strength of the house reduced to 27, which included the three nominated members, the government had the support of only 11 members. After the government lost the trust vote, Narayanasamy resigned as chief minister on 22 February. Later, Narayanasamy stated that the government lost because the speaker accepted the votes from nominated members on equal standing to the elected ones, and the lieutenant governor, who was a former member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had appointed members of the same party for all the nominated seats.

Schedule EventDate Beginning of nominations 12 March 2021 Deadline for filing Nominations 19 March 2021 Scrutiny of nominations 20 March 2021 Deadline for withdrawal of candidatures 22 March 2021 Polling 6 April 2021 Counting 2 May 2021

Parties and alliances United Progressive Alliance

The Congress led United Progressive Alliance contested the elections in alliance with the DMK. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) contested the Muthialpet seat and supported the alliance in all other seats.

colspan="6" United Progressive Alliance Party Flag Symbol Leader Seats V. Narayanasamy 14 R. Siva 13 A. M. Saleem 1 Thol. Thirumavalavan 1 Gollapalli Srinivas Ashok 1 Total30

AINRC-led Alliance

The AINRC-led Alliance led by the AINRC, consisted of BJP and AIADMK. The Pattali Makkal Katchi, which initially announced candidates to nine seats, later withdrew from competition, and supported the alliance without contesting in any seat.

colspan="6" AINRC-led Alliance Party Flag Symbol Leader Seats N. Rangaswamy 16 A. Namassivayam 9 A. Anbalagan 5 Total30

Other parties

Party Symbol Leader Seats contested Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation CPI(ML)L Dipankar Bhattacharya 1 Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) K. Balakrishnan 1 Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam DMDK Vijayakanth 26 Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi IJK T. R. Paarivendhar 21 Makkal Needhi Maiam MNM Kamal Haasan 22

Candidates + List Of Candidates District ConstituencyUPAAINRC+ # Name Party Candidate Party Candidate Puducherry 1 MannadipetDMKA. KrishnanBJPA. Namassivayam 2 Thirubuvanai (SC)DMKA. MugilanAINRCB. Gobika 3 Ossudu (SC)INCP. Karthikeyan BJPA. K. Sai J. Saravanan Kumar 4 MangalamDMKSankumaravelAINRCC. Djeacoumar 5 VillianurDMK R. SivaAINRCS. V. Sugumaran 6 Ozhukarai VCKD. AngalaneAINRCG. Pannirselvam 7 KadirkamamINCP. SelvanathanAINRCS. Ramesh 8 Indira NagarINCM. KannanAINRCA. K. D. Arumugam9 ThattanchavadyCPIK. Sethu SelvamAINRCN. Rangaswamy10 Kamaraj NagarINC M. O. H. F. Shahjahan BJPA. Johnkumar 11 LawspetINC M. Vaithianathan BJPV. Saminathan12 KalapetDMKS. MuthuvelBJPP. M. L. Kalyanasundaram13 MuthialpetINCS. Senthil Kumaran Vaiyapuri Manikandan 14 Raj BhavanDMKS. P. SivakumarAINRCK. Lakshminarayanan15 OupalamDMKV. Annibal KennedyA. Anbalagan 16 OrleampethDMKS. GopalOmsakthi Sekar17 NellithopeDMKV. KarthikeyanBJPRichards Johnkumar 18 MudaliarpetDMKL. SambathA. Baskar 19 AriankuppamINCT. JayamurthyAINRCR. Baskar Datchanamourtty 20 ManavelyINCR. K. R. AnantharamanBJPEmbalam R. Selvam 21 Embalam (SC)INCM. KandassamyAINRCU. Lakshmikandhan 22 Nettapakkam (SC)INCV. VijayavenyAINRCP. Rajavelu 23 BahourDMKR. SenthilkumarAINRCN. Danavelu Karaikal 24 Nedungadu (SC)INCA. Marimuthu AINRCChandira Priyanga 25 ThirunallarINCR. KamalakannanBJPG. N. S. Rajasekaran 26 Karaikal NorthINCA. V. SubramanianAINRCP. R. N. Thirumurugan 27 Karaikal SouthDMKA.M.H. NazeemK. A. U. Asana 28 Neravy T R PattinamDMKM. NagathiyagarajanBJPV. M. C. S. Manokaran Mahe 29 MaheINC Ramesh ParambathAINRC V. P. Abdul Rahman Yanam 30 YanamINDGollapalli Srinivas AshokAINRCN. Rangaswamy

Polls and surveys Opinion polls +DatePolling agencyLeadAINRC+UPA Others3 April 2021Thanthi TV3-9024 March 2021Patriotic Voter10-120-315 March 2021ABP News–CVoter10-140 8 March 2021 Times Now–CVoter1201 March 2021Patriotic Voter110

Exit polls +Date publishedPolling agencyLeadAINRC+UPA Others29 April 2021Republic TV–CNX11-13 -29 April 2021Patriotic Voter 12 -29 April 2021ABP News–CVoter6-101-2

Voter Turnout +Turnout District Vote %Karaikal 80.07Mahé73.53Puducherry82.01Yanam91.27Total83.42

Result + 16 9 5 AINRC+ UPA IND

Party Votes Vote % Swing Conts Won ChangeAll India N.R. Congress 25.85 2.3 16 10 2 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 18.51 9.6 13 6 4Indian National Congress 15.71 14.9 14 2 13Bharatiya Janata Party 13.66 11.3 9 6 6 Independents 12.68 6 5Others 9.6 560 None of the above 1.29 0.4Total 100 30 30Valid votes99.88Invalid votes0.12Votes cast / turnout83.42Registered voters Source:Election Commission of India

Results by party and alliance +SourceAINRC+SeatsUPASeatsOthersSeatsAINRC10INC2IND6BJP6DMK6Total16Total8Total6Change 5Change 9Change 4

Results by district + DistrictSeatsNRC+UPAINDPuducherry231454Karaikal5221Mahe1010Yanam1010Total301695

Results by constituency Keys: 

+ Results District Constituency Winner Runner Up Margin % # Name Poll % Candidate Party Votes % Candidate Party Votes % Puducherry 1 Mannadipet 89.10% A. Namassivayam 14,939 51.82 A. Krishnan 12,189 42.282,7509.54 2 Thirubhuvanai 87.61% P. Angalane 10,597 36.78 B. Kobiga 8,238 28.602,3598.18 3 Oussudu 89.50% A. K. Saravanankumar 14,121 48.78 P. Karthikeyan 12,241 42.291,8806.49 4 Mangalam 87.75% C. Djeacoumar 16,972 50.89 Sun. Kumaravel 14,221 42.642,7518.25 5 Villianur 83.08% R. Siva 19,653 55.73 S. V. Sugumaran 12,703 36.026,95019.71 6 Ozhukarai 77.83% M. Sivasankar 11,940 36.50 N. G. Pannir Selvam 11,121 34.008192.50 7 Kadirgamam 78.04% S. Ramesh 17,775 65.82 P. Selvanadane 5,529 20.4712,24645.35 8 Indira Nagar 82.04% A. K. D. Arumugam 21,841 74.77 M. Kannan 3,310 11.3318,53163.44 9 Thattanchavady 76.89% N. Rangasamy 12,978 55.02 K. Sethu Selvam 7,522 31.895,45623.13 10 Kamaraj Nagar 78.65% A. Johnkumar 16,687 56.11 M. O. H. F. Shahjahan 9,458 31.807,22924.31 11 Lawspet 80.67% M. Vaithianathan 14,592 55.60 V. Saminathan 8,891 33.885,70121.72 12 Kalapet 85.87% Kalyanasundaram 13,277 44.63 A. Senthil Ramesh 9,769 32.843,50811.79 13 Muthialpet 78.64% J. Prakash Kumar 8,778 37.48 Vaiyapuri Manikandan 7,844 33.499343.99 14 Raj Bhavan 73.93% K. Lakshminarayanan 10,096 51.86 S. P. Sivakumar 6,364 32.693,73219.17 15 Oupalam 85.06% Annibal Kennedy 13,433 56.64 A. Anbalagan 8,653 36.484,78020.16 16 Orleampeth 81.95% G. Nehru Kuppusamy 9,580 47.29 S. Gopal 7,487 36.962,09310.33 17 Nellithope 82.56% Richards Johnkumar 11,757 42.26 V. Cartigueyane 11,261 40.474961.79 18 Mudaliarpet 83.01% L. Sambath 15,151 51.30 A. Baskar 10,972 37.154,17914.15 19 Ariankuppam 84.23% R. Baskar 17,858 54.32 T. Djeamourthy 11,440 34.806,41819.52 20 Manavely 86.74% Embalam R. Selvam 17,225 57.54 R. K. R. Anantharaman 9,093 30.378,13227.17 21 Embalam (SC) 88.76% U. Lakshmikandhan 15,624 50.85 M. Candassamy 13,384 43.562,2407.29 22 Nettapakkam (SC) 86.93% P. Rajavelu 15,978 56.82 V. Vizeaveny 9,340 33.216,63823.61 23 Bahour 89.60% R. Senthilkumar 11,789 44.56 N. Dhanavelou 11,578 43.762110.80 Karaikal 24 Nedungadu (SC) 84.92% S. Chandra Priyanga 10,774 40.20 A. Marimuthu 8,560 31.942,2148.26 25 Thirunallar 85.93% P. R. Siva 9,796 36.45 S. Rajasekaran 8,416 31.321,3805.13 26 Karaikal North 79.43% P. R. N. Thirumurugan 12,704 44.85 A. V. Subramanian 12,569 44.381350.47 27 Karaikal South 76.54% A. M. H. Nazeem 17,401 71.15 K. A. U. Assana 5,367 21.9512,03449.20 28 Neravy-T.R.Pattinam 83.40% M. Nagathiyagarajan 14,496 55.74 V. M. C. S. Manoharen 8,985 34.555,51121.19 Mahe 29 Mahe 75.29% Ramesh Parambath 9,744 41.63 N. Haridasan Master 9,444 40.353001.28 Yanam 30 Yanam 92.31% Gollapalli Srinivas Ashok 17,132 49.07 N. Rangasamy 16,477 47.206551.87

Government formation

As the AINRC+ achieved a majority in the elections, the AINRC–BJP combine formed the next government. The lieutenant governor appointed three members to the assembly, all of whom belonged to the BJP, raising its count to nine in the assembly. Furthermore, the six independent members pledged support to the government, increasing its strength to 25 in the 33-member assembly. Rangaswamy was sworn in as the chief minister of Puducherry for the fourth time on 7 May 2021. On 8 June, the alliance announced that the BJP would get two ministers and the post of the assembly speaker, while AIRNC got three ministers.

See also 2021 elections in India 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election 2019 Indian general election in Puducherry

References

Notes