Nearly 60 per cent of the new Puducherry Assembly has been to college. That's right. You're finally getting the educated legislators you've always talked about.
According to statistics obtained from the affidavits and websites like www.myneta.info, the percentage of the winning candidates who are graduate or above is 56.6 per cent in Puducherry which has a total of 30 seats that were contested at the assemble elections 2021. This is quite an increase compared to the 2016 election results when the number of winners who were graduates and above stood at 13 (43%).
Among all the elected MLAs in the union territory, none have a PhD while seven have completed their post-graduation. Out of the 30 winners, two have not passed Class X, while six have completed high school and five have completed Class XII.
All elected MLAs in Puducherry this year are employed while most of the politicians elected in the union territory run their own businesses (13), but none of them are academicians. Out of the total of 30 candidates, eight are agriculturists, four are social workers and two are lawyers.
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In a first, the 15th Legislative Assembly in Puducherry have a father-son duo sworn in as MLAs. A John Kumar, who moved from the Congress to the BJP, and his eldest son Richards John Kumar (also on a BJP ticket) who made his electoral début, became the first father-son duo to do so. A John Kumar who won from the Kamaraj Nagar seat is also the only winning MLA who has no education.
N Rangaswamy, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the first NDA government in the UT, likely on May 7. It will be Rangasamy’s fourth tenure as Chief Minister, and the first, heading a coalition government. The NDA emerged victorious in the Puducherry Assembly election 2021, with the All India NR Congress becoming the single-largest party. The AINRC won 25.85 per cent of the vote share, while its ally BJP won 13.66 per cent of the votes. In the Opposition camp, the DMK won an 18.51 per cent vote share while the Congress won 15.71 per cent of the popular mandate, according to the figures released by the Election Commission. The AINRC has won ten seats, while the BJP has won six seats. In the opposition, the DMK won six constituencies, while Congress won in two places. The AIADMK suffered a setback this year as none of the five candidates could emerge victorious in the assembly elections in the UT.
