2011 Puducherry Legislative Assembly election


A legislative assembly election was held in the Indian union territory of Puducherry 13 April 2011 to elect members from thirty constituencies in the non-contiguous territory.

Candidates

26 March 2011 marked the last day to complete nominations for the elections. 30 March 2011 was the last day for possible withdrawal of nominations. In total, 187 candidates contested the polls. In Yanam there was a total of ten candidates, the highest number in any constituency in this election. In the Indira Nagar constituency there were just two candidates, former chief minister N. Rangaswamy and Indian National Congress candidate A.K.D. Aroumougame. The counting of the votes was scheduled for 13 May 2011.

Campaign

Amongst the contending parties, there were two major coalitions. On one side, there was an alliance backing the incumbent chief minister V. Vaithilingam, consisting of the Indian National Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Pattali Makkal Katchi and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi. The other main bloc contesting the election was an alliance consisting of the All India N.R Congress of N. Rangaswamy, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Communist Party of India , the Communist Party of India and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam. A third force was the Bharatiya Janata Party, which did not align with any of the two big bloc and contested twenty seats on its own. There were also 78 independent candidates in the fray.
Several high-profile national politicians took part in the campaigning: Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu, M. Karunanidhi, J. Jayalalithaa and Vijayakanth.

Election

Over 810,000 voters were eligible to take part in the polls.

Results