President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday removed Kiran Bedi as the lieutenant governor of Puducherry, just ahead of the assembly elections in April-May this year, and gave Tamilisai Soundararajan, the governor of Telangana, the additional charge of the Union territory.
“The President has directed that Dr. Kiran Bedi shall cease to hold the office of the Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry and has appointed Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan, Governor of Telangana, to discharge the functions of the Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry, in addition to her own duties, with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office, until regular arrangements for the office of Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry are made,” a release from the President’s office said.
The President’s order also comes on a day Puducherry’s V Narayanasamy-led Congress government slipped into a minority after legislator A John Kumar resigned. He is the fourth Congress legislator to have quit over the last month. Kumar’s resignation came a day after health minister Malladi Krishna Rao also quit.
Ministers A Namassivayam and E Theepaindan had resigned in January and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Another Congress MLA, N Dhanavelu, was disqualified in July last year for anti-party activities. ( HT )
