On a narrow lane where scooters edge past doorways and conversations spill over house thresholds, N Rangasamy’s residence does not announce power. It sits quietly, without barricades or visible security, its rhythms closer to a neighbourhood than to a seat of government.
Inside, the Puducherry Chief Minister speaks in the same register – low-key, measured, steeped in the language of a Union Territory where politics is both intimate and constrained.
“In Puducherry, everything is like a model,” says Rangasamy, 75, describing the election as something that is as much about proximity as it is about policy.
While speaking to The Indian Express, the All India N R Congress (AINRC) president, who is again leading the NDA into the Assembly elections, scheduled for April 9, maintains his key point: Governance in Puducherry depends less on ideology than on alignment with the Centre.
“Only if the party that is running the Government of India is also part of the government here, development can happen,” he says. “That is a strategy. That is how it is.”
It is a line he returns to often – not as a slogan, but as an acknowledgement of a structural limitation. Puducherry, unlike a full-fledged state, operates within a framework where administrative authority ultimately rests with the Lieutenant Governor (L-G), appointed by the Centre. The arrangement, reinforced by a Supreme Court ruling during the previous Congress-led Puducherry government, has reshaped how power is exercised in the UT.
“Even for small things, files have to go there,” he says, referring to the L-G’s office. “If the file is returned, there is no other way.”
In that system, he argues, proximity to the ruling party at the Centre is not merely advantageous – it is a “necessity”. “Without their support, nothing can be done,” says the BJP’s ally. “I know this fully, in detail.”
Rangasamy’s claim is tied to what he projects as his government’s record of welfare and development over the past five years. He points to Rs 2,500-Rs 4,000 old age pension schemes and Rs 2,500 assistance to women heads of households as evidence of a model that he claims scores over neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
“Now they (DMK-led Tamil Nadu government) are talking about Rs 1,000 (as aid to women) there,” he says. “We have already given Rs 2,500.”
The AINRC-led government has also revived the public distribution system (PDS) in Puducherry. “We are supplying everything when it comes to ration cards,” the CM says. “Rice is being delivered to homes.”
Employment, he adds, remains a challenge, but one he frames in terms of incremental correction. “We have filled about 5,000 vacancies in five years,” he says, listing multiple positions – from clerks to nurses, teachers, and police personnel. “For many years, these posts were not filled.”
Another 1,000 jobs, he says, are planned if his government returns to power. Tourism, for long a pillar of Puducherry’s economy, is both an opportunity and a pressure point. “On some days, more than one lakh people come here,” he says, describing weekend surges that stretch infrastructure but also sustain local businesses.
The UT’s growth, he notes, has spiralled outwards – from the town centre toward Kalapet and Auroville, reshaping the region’s character.
“Auroville has changed a lot in the last two years,” Rangasamy says. “Hotels have come up, restaurants have come up. At night, it is different.”
Yet, for all the emphasis on development, the conversation returns repeatedly to governance – and its limits.
The demand for statehood, a long-standing aspiration in Puducherry, remains central to his political pitch. “We need power, we need an elected government with full authority,” he says. “We are asking for that.”
Until that happens, the CM suggests, political strategy must adapt to institutional reality. “You have to balance it. That is how Puducherry is,” he says. Here, he adds, relationships blur the lines between the government and the Opposition. “Everyone knows each other,” he says. “Relatives. Friends. There is no ‘opposition’ like that.”
When asked about allegations of the use of money power in elections, he sidesteps the question. “Why are you asking only about Puducherry?” he replies. “It has come and gone everywhere.”
For Rangasamy, the central argument remains straightforward: Development, he insists, is contingent on alignment – between Puducherry and New Delhi, between administration and authority. “Only if this kind of alliance (NDA) government comes back, we can do what needs to be done,” he says.