Pondy Ministry in two instalments

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 24.Mr. N. Rangasamy, Chief Minister-designate of Pondicherry, will be sworn-in on Saturday, October 27. He succeeds Mr. P.Shanmugam who resigned, last week, as none of the MLA was willing to resign to facilitate his election to the Assembly.

On Saturday, Mr. Rangasamy, will be the lone person to be sworn- in and his Ministry will be finalised and sworn in later, in consultation with the high command. The decision to hold the swearing-in ceremony in two instalments was taken in his meeting with the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, and the AICC general secretary-in-charge, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad. He was accompanied by the Pondicherry PCC chief, Mr. Narayanswamy.

Mr. Rangasamy's Ministry will also include a representative of Mr. Kannan's Puducheri Makal Congress.

Later, talking to newspersons, Mr. Azad clarified that the issue of whether the AIADMK and the TMC would join the Government would be decided later. As far as Tamil Nadu was concerned, the Congress alliance with the AIADMK would continue, despite the fact that the two parties had contested the recent local bodies elections separately. He also expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the elections.

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Section  : National
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