What's happening in Puducherry? This has been a question across the nation as the tiny territory has been unfolding a huge political drama equal to that of powerful states. The seats in the Puducherry assembly are far less than the grids on the chessboard but the game it plays to stalemate the rival is as massive and heat as to the political war on the battlefield. 

Puducherry is one of the Congress ruling states that has always been in the national spotlight not only for its dazzling climate and locations but also for the political wave that always makes hard landfall on its shores. The Union Territory-cum-state has been witnessing the incessant fights between the heads on who enjoy more power in the territory. Ever since the current government came to power, the politics in the semi-state has been more concerned about who controls the power in the tiny state.  

The direct and apparent clash between Chief Minister Narayanasamy and Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi is something that the nation had never witnessed and has been incessantly going on with the fuel from both sides of the aisle. From throwing allegations directly between each other to holding protests, both the rivals are in a never-give-up tenacity and the clash of who controls the state has been brewing every day. The main allegation from Narayanasamy is that Kiran Bedi has been displaying the governorship surpassing the rights vested with the state government. 

From the other side of the ring, Kiran Bedi claims that she has more power in the state as the Lieutenant Governor than what is being exercised by Narayasamy. The Chief Minister is only left to wage a war against Kiran Bedi as he has done the possible measures to contain Bedi's direct involvement in his governance. The Chief Minister of the only Congress ruling state in South India has held several protests against Kiran Bedi and marched to Delhi, urging the Center to withdraw Kiran Bedi from Puducherry. 

One of the important factors that had driven Narayanasamy to carry out the war of words against Kiran Bedi is the majority that he enjoys in the 30-member assembly. Powered by the opposition parties, Narayanasamy has been steering his rule with the support of Congress and its allied parties and the parties stood with him during his politics and protests against Kiran Bedi. However, the latest political drama unfolded in Puducherry has been played out against him, which would endanger his rule in the state. 

What Puducherry has been witnessing is that a direct pattern of shockwaves for the ruling Congress party from some of the loyalists and supporters of Narayasamy, who have now turned foes and put the Congress government into trouble to complete its fullest five-year term, which had given a huge setback for the Congress leadership. The development that the Congress party getting closer to losing power has come at a high time when Puducherry is just months ahead of the assembly elections. 

The spark for the stunning political drama was lit by Congress leader  Namassivayam. He was serving as PWD Minister and last month, he had resigned as a legislator and moved his resignation to House Speaker Sivakolundhu. While his resignation had aghast Congress party, he further shocked the grand old party by joining the BJP and taking the role of campaigning against Congress in the upcoming polls. In line with Namassivayam, Congress lost its second wicket after the party's legislator Theeppainjan had moved his resignation to the Speaker on January 25. 

The back-to-back resignations had put Narayanasamy under fresh challenge to save his government from running out of the majority. However, displaying that it's not an end, senior Congress leader Malladi Krishna Rao has on Monday resigned from the post of MLA. Krishna Rao, who was a close confidante of Narayanasamy, has sent his resignation as MLA to the Speaker through a letterhead. Rao has become the third MLA to quit Congress. 

In his resignation letter, Rao said, "I tender the resignation of my seat in the House with effect from February 15". In line with Rao, John Kumar has now moved his resignation to the Speaker and Kumar has become the fourth Congress legislator to move his resignation. John Kumar was representing Kamaraj Nagar constituency and tabled his resignation by claiming dissatisfaction with the Congress government. 

Congress had formed the government with 15 party legislators and the support from four legislators of allied parties. Last July, Congress MLA Dhanavelu was disqualified for the anti-party activities which brought the number of Congress MLAs to 14. If the House Speaker accepts the resignation of four dissented MLAs, the number of legislators of the Congress party will shrink to 10, five less than the current majority mark of 15, and even with the support of four allied parties, Narayasamy will be short of one member to reach the majority mark. 

John Kumar's resignation has come a day ahead of Rahul Gandhi's visit to Puducherry. The Congress leader is coming to the state on Wednesday to prepare the election strategy and it will be his first visit since the party came to power. As the grand old party is bracing up a huge setback, it has been pushed to fix the intra-party dissent to come back stronger towards not losing the only Congress ruling state in South India. The party is now double tasked with framing the election strategies and containing the intra-party drama directed by the legislators. 

What more shocked is Malladi Krishna Rao's resignation as only last week he had accompanied Chief Minister Narayasamy to Delhi to request the removal of Kiran Bedi as Lieutenant Governor. The political observers say that while Namassivayam and Theeppainjan had already joined BJP, the other two will also join the Central ruling party ahead of the polls. Namassivayam has played an important role in building the party's base in Puducherry and his exit from the party had deeply disappointed the grand old party.

Namassivayam was expecting that he would be given the post of Chief Minister, but it went for Narayansamy and the former had expected the post of Puducherry party chief which had gone to AV Subramanian. As he was ignored by the party, he had switched side and joined BJP and speculations are on the rise that he would be the CM candidate for BJP in Puducherry. 

The political observers say that Puducherry would go for polls by May along with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and West Bengal. While BJP is not far away from emerging victorious in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the Central ruling party has been hoping to have a political breakthrough in Puducherry by perfect using the weakening grounds of the Congress party. As the Congress party is facing an intra-party dissent wave in Puducherry after Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, the House Speaker holds the key to unveil what's next for Puducherry. 

If he accepts the resignations of all the four MLAs, Kiran Bedi will call Narayasamy to prove his majority in the assembly and at the current state, Narayanasamy would face a debacle with a short of one member to the majority mark. Amid such developments, it was reported that all the ministers of Puducherry will be resigning from their posts by citing the emergence of a plot to topple the Congress government. However, while addressing the reporters on Tuesday, Narayanasamy asserted that the cabinet won't be resigning and the Congress government has a majority and will function as per the Indian Constitution.