Apart from being one of the most visited tourist places in the country, the Union Territory Puducherry, which resides on the shores of Bay of Bengal and holds the testament of witnessing the French tradition in India, has been driving through the heat and agitation between the Congress-led government and the Lieutenant Governor.

The former French colony has been coming through the aberrant episodes of the governance and its mechanisms that have been lubricated by the words of war between Chief Minister Narayanaswamy and Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and the fight has been on between the heads of the state for the past few years that had seen the fierce exchanges and accusations. Recently, the much delayed local body polls in the territory had ignited the spur between both sides of the aisle.

The local body posts in Puducherry haven't been filled for the past eight years and recently, the court had ordered the election commission to conduct the local body polls after completing the delimitation of the wards. However, the reports say that the elections have been postponing by citing the absence of the election commissioner in the state. Last July, the state cabinet approved and appointed retired IAS officer Balakrishnan as the Chief Election Commissioner and this was the decision that spurred the tug of war on holding the baton of power. 

The sources have stated that after the appointment of the CEC, Kiran Bedi had approached the Union Home Ministry regarding the power exercised by the Lieutenant Governor (LG) and last December, the Home Ministry had issued an order in which it has underlined that the post of the CEC must be filled transparently under the committee headed by the Chief Secretary. The order has stated that the final decision and authorization must be taken by the Lieutenant Governor. With accord to the order from the MHA, Kiran Bedi had directed the Chief Secretary to elect the Election Commissioner as per the guidance of the Home Ministry.

Chief Minister Narayaswamy had opposed the direction of Kiran Bedi and accused the Lieutenant Governor of electing the candidate close to her for which Kiran Bedi urged Narayaswamy not to spread the falsified information. While we asked Jagannathan, the leader of the state local body federation about the ongoing developments and political fight, he said that Puducherry is entitled to receive Rs 420 crore from the Central government as part of the local body fund that can be used for enhancing and empowering the rural and urban areas. He stated that the ruling government, its ministers and MLAs are wishing not to have the local body elections as their power would be demeaned and diminished after the local bodies elect its representatives.

He revealed that for the past nine years, Puducherry hasn't awarded the local body fund of Rs 3300 crore and the condition remains the same as the Chief Minister and the Lieutenant Governor have been engaging in the words of war. He asserted that the federation would be appealing to the President, the Prime Minister, and the Home Minister to urge them to conduct local body polls in the state.