Vaithilingam wins it big for Congress in Puducherry

PUDUCHERRY: V Vaithilingam of the Congress, representing the INDIA bloc, retained the Puducherry Lok Sabha seat, defeating his nearest rival A Namassivayam of the BJP by a margin of over 1,36,516 votes. He polled 4,26,005 votes while Namassivayam could garner only 2,88,489 out of a total of 8, 07,724 votes (excluding postal votes) polled. R Menaga of NTK secured the third place by bagging 39,603 votes, and G Thamizhvendan came fourth with 25,165 votes. Vaithilingam polled 52.73% votes against Namassivayam’s 35.83%.

The victory marks a historic moment as it is the first time in Puducherry’s history that a candidate from the opposition has defeated the ruling party candidate in the general elections. Since 1967, candidates from the ruling party in Puducherry have always won the seat. Vaithilingam won in 2019 when the Congress government led by V Narayanasamy was in power in the UT. He managed to secure more votes than Namassivayam and other candidates in all Assembly segments, except Yanam.

Political analysts attribute Vaithilingam’s victory to factors including a strong wave of support for the INDIA bloc in TN. Voters were motivated by concerns over protecting the Constitution, opposition to the use of agencies like the ED, CBI, and I-T against political opponents, and dissatisfaction with issues such as inflation, high prices of LPG and fuel, unemployment, and BJP’s perceived overreach in non-BJP states through governors and lieutenant governors.