Leaders at the AINRC meeting on Friday (October 4, 2024) in Puducherry
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The ruling All India N.R. Congress (AINRC) in Puducherry has decided to enlist new members and strengthen the party’s organisational structure in all the 30 Assembly segments ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls in the Union Territory (UT).

As part of its internal deliberations, senior leaders of the party, barring founder-president and Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, met at the AINRC office in the UT on Friday (October 4, 2024) evening to chalk out an action plan.

In the meeting chaired by party vice-president V. Sabapathy alias Kothandaraman, it was decided to increase enrollment and fill various organisational posts booth-wise, as part of strengthening the AINRC’s apparatus in all the Assembly segments.

The leaders also decided to constitute feeder organisations representing various castes, including Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes, besides the working-class population.

Mr. Rangasamy, though absent during the preliminary discussions, would be meeting leaders after the key posts are filled, said a party functionary.

The Chief Minister would be attending another round of meetings scheduled to be held next week. Minister for Public Works K. Lakshminarayanan, Minister for Agriculture C. Djeacoumar, Deputy Speaker P. Rajavelou, and party secretary N.S.J. Jayabal were among those who participated in the deliberations held on Friday, he said.

On BJP-AINRC alliance

“We have not filled key organisational posts for the past several years. In fact, even the general secretary post has been lying vacant after the demise of one of the party’s founding members, V. Balan. The need for strengthening the party organisation became evident during the Lok Sabha polls. Though the seat was contested by our alliance partner, the BJP, our vulnerabilities got exposed. The Congress won the seat with a huge majority, which we never expected,” a party functionary told The Hindu.

According to another leader, certain decisions, like conceding the three nominated MLA posts and the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha seats to the BJP, have not gone down well with some of the AINRC leaders. So, the party felt the need to assuage their concerns by accommodating them in key positions, the leader said.

“We have conceded a lot to the alliance partner, and the current political situation is not the same as what it was in 2021. In the 2021 Assembly elections, we contested only 16 seats, leaving nine to the BJP and five to the AIADMK (the Dravidian party is functioning independently since its Tamil Nadu leadership severed ties with the BJP). The party will take extra efforts to strengthen the constituencies which it contested in the last elections and also in the remaining 14,” said another leader.