Ahead of the imminent April 13 Assembly elections, T. Thiagarajan, Parliamentary secretary to Puducherry chief minister V. Vaithilingam, on Saturday resigned as a nominated legislator in the Puducherry Assembly, the fourth MLA to quit his post in 2011.
After submitting his letter of resignation to the secretary to the Legislative Assembly, Thiagarajan said the Vaithilingam-led Congress government did not recognise him and did not even associate him with any of the government functions held in his native village of Kuruvinatham.
Asked if he would shift allegiance to any other party he said, "for the present, I have not taken any decision about my future course of action".
Thiagarajan is the fourth Puducherry legislator to quit his post this year. Former chief minister N. Rangasamy and the government whip P. Angalane had resigned as MLAs on January 20.
Rangasamy floated his political party All India NR Congress (AINRC) on February 7. Angalane joined the Rangasamy-led party the same day he quit his MLA post.
PMK legislator N.G. Panneerselvam (another nominated member) also resigned from his membership of the House in the last week of February and he, too, joined AINRC within hours of quitting as MLA.
With Thiagarajan's resignation, the number of nominated legislators in the Puducherry Assembly has been reduced to one.