Puducherry Assembly election 2026: Congress hints at ‘friendly fight’ in few seats

The Congress on Wednesday gave an indication of its plan to enter into a “friendly fight” with its alliance partners — the DMK, the CPI and the VCK — in certain constituencies for the April 9 Assembly polls in the Union Territory.

During a media interaction at the Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee office, the All India Congress Committee’s official spokesperson Dolly Sharma said a clear picture on the candidates in fray for the Assembly elections would emerge only by Thursday. The Election Commission of India has set March 26 (Thursday) as the deadline for candidates to withdraw their nomination papers in Puducherry. 

While answering a question about candidates of alliance partners filing nomination papers from the same constituencies, Ms. Sharma said, “let us see, how many people will take back their nomination papers by tomorrow. There is a friendly fight in a few seats”.

Asked whether the DMK has agreed for the friendly contest, she said, “Yes, I don’t think the DMK has issued any statement regarding the friendly fight. Our candidates have already started their campaign.”

When reporters pointed out the exception of the Congress being the only major party not to have released the candidates list, Ms. Sharma said, “whoever is going to fight the elections for the party, have filed their nomination papers.”

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India has convened its State Council to discuss the standoff with the Congress in the INDIA bloc on sharing seats for the April 9 polls. With the INDIA bloc failing to reach any agreement, the CPI secretary, A. M. Saleem, and former party legislator Nara Kalainathan had on the last day of filing of nominations submitted papers for the Thattanchavady and Ozhukarai constituencies respectively. 

Member of Parliament and PCC chief V. Vaithilingam had also filed nomination from the Thattanchavady constituency, while the new entrant to the Congress and sitting Independent MLA M. Sivasankar filed nominations from the Ozhukarai constituency. Another key constituent of the INDIA bloc, the DMK has already allotted Ozhukarai to its ally, the VCK. 

“We discussed in detail the seat sharing issues. The party has asked the Congress to make it’s stand clear on leaving one of the seats to the CPI before the deadline for withdrawal of nomination ends on Thursday. Our national leaders are also in touch with the leadership of the Congress and the DMK. We are waiting for the Congress’ response to announce our stand,” a CPI leader told The Hindu. 

The trouble within the alliance is only growing as days advance for the elections with more Congress candidates launching door-to-door campaign in constituencies already selected by the DMK for the Assembly polls. 

A day after Congress Minister M.O.H. F. Shahjahan launched his campaign from Kalapet where the DMK has fielded A. Senthil alias Ramesh, two more Congress nominees R. Kumaran and Mr. Sivasankar have started door-to-door campaign on Wednesday giving strong indication of their decision not to withdraw from the poll process. 

Mr. Kumaran has filed nomination papers from Raj Bhavan where the DMK has fielded Vignesh Kannan, son of former Speaker P. Kannan. Mr. Sivasankar, a sitting Independent legislator, has filed nomination from Ozhukarai as the Congress candidate though the DMK has allotted the Ozhukarai seat to the VCK.

Organisational failure.

“The situation shows the organisational weakness of the party. We are not even able to release the candidate list even after the last day of filing of nominations. Even with the standoff over seat sharing with us, the DMK was able to release their list of candidates. When the PCC chief itself is at the centre of controversy on seat sharing, whom do we expect to approach for solutions. The high command too has not intervened so far,” a senior Congress leader told .