Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy-led Congress government will undergo a floor test on Monday to prove its majority in the Assembly. Puducherry Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan had on Thursday ordered for the floor test, which will be concluded by 5 pm and voting will be held by the show of hands, Hindustan Times reported quoting the Governor’s statement.

Also read: Tamilisai Soundararajan replaces Kiran Bedi as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry

Although Puducherry has a 33-member Assembly, in which 30 are elected, while three are nominated. Due to the vacancy of seven members, the strength now is 28 and the CM needs 14 votes to win the floor test.

However, this is unlikely as the ruling Congress-led government has 12 MLAs and the Opposition has 14 (this includes the three nominated members, all of whom belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party).

What led to the seven vacancies in Puducherry Assembly

The seven vacancies in the Assembly were due to the resignations of five Congress MLAs, one MLA from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and a Congress legislator who was expelled last year for anti-party activities. 

Congress MLA K Lakshminarayanan and DMK’s Venkatesan are the latest, who announced their resignations on Sunday.

How many MLAs does the government have?

Congress, which leads the Puducherry government, has nine MLAs, including Speaker SP Sivakolundhi, who will only vote in case of a tie.

The party has the support of two DMK MLAs and an Independent legislator from Mahe.

Thus it has 11 votes (excluding Speaker’s), one short of the majority mark.

How many MLAs does the Opposition have?

It has seven MLAs from the All Indian NR Congress, four from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the three nominated legislators from BJP.

Thus, the Opposition has 14 MLAs, two more than the majority mark.