2011 Puducherry Legislative Assembly election

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All 30 seats to the Puducherry Legislative Assembly 16 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	86.19%
First party Second party   Leader N. Rangaswamy V. Vaithilingam Party AINRC INC Leader since 7 February 2011 4 September 2008 Leader's seat Indira Nagar Kamraj Nagar Last election New 10 Seats before New 10 Seats won 15 7 Seat change 15 3 Percentage 31.75% 25.06%
Green = Indian National Congress, Red = All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Yellow = Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Blue = All India N.R Congress, Grey = Independent
Chief Minister before election V. Vaithilingam INC Elected Chief Minister N. Rangaswamy AINRC

A legislative assembly election was held in the Indian union territory of Puducherry 13 April 2011 to elect members from thirty constituencies in the non-contiguous territory. This election was meant to constitute the Thirteenth Assembly of Pondicherry.^[1]

Candidates

26 March 2011 marked the last day to complete nominations for the elections. 30 March 2011 was the last day for possible withdrawal of nominations.^[1] In total, 187 candidates contested the polls. In Yanam there was a total of ten candidates, the highest number in any constituency in this election. In the Indira Nagar constituency there were just two candidates, former chief minister N. Rangaswamy (who also contested the Kadirkamam constituency, this was the first time in the history of the territory that a candidate contested two different assembly constituencies) and Indian National Congress candidate A.K.D. Aroumougame.^[2] The counting of the votes was scheduled for 13 May 2011.^[1]

Campaign

Amongst the contending parties, there were two major coalitions. On one side, there was an alliance backing the incumbent chief minister V. Vaithilingam, consisting of the Indian National Congress (which contested 17 seats), the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (10 seats), Pattali Makkal Katchi (2 seats) and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (1 seat). The other main bloc contesting the election was an alliance consisting of the All India N.R Congress of N. Rangaswamy (contesting 17 seats), the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (10 seats), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (1 seat), the Communist Party of India (1 seat) and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (1 seat). A third force was the Bharatiya Janata Party, which did not align with any of the two big bloc and contested twenty seats on its own. There were also 78 independent candidates in the fray.^[2]

Several high-profile national politicians took part in the campaigning: Sonia Gandhi (president of the Indian National Congress), Rahul Gandhi (Indian National Congress general secretary), Pranab Mukherjee (Indian National Congress union minister), Nitin Gadkari (BJP president), Sushma Swaraj (BJP MP), Venkaiah Naidu (former BJP president), M. Karunanidhi (DMK chief minister of Tamil Nadu), J. Jayalalithaa (general secretary of AIADMK) and Vijayakanth (general secretary of DMDK).^[2]

Election

Over 810,000 voters were eligible to take part in the polls.^[2]

Parties and alliances

Source: ^[3]

  Democratic Progressive Alliance

Party			Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Indian National Congress	INC		V. Vaithilingam	17
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	DMK		R. Siva	10

  AINRC-AIADMK Alliance

Party			Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	All India N.R. Congress	AINRC		N. Rangasamy	17
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	AIADMK		A. Anbalagan	10

Results

Parties and Coalitions		Votes	Vote %	Vote swing	Contested	Won	Change
	All India N.R. Congress	2,21,552	31.75		17	15	15
	Indian National Congress	1,85,149	26.53		17	7	3
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	95,960	13.75		10	5	2
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	74,552	10.68		10	2	5
	Pattali Makkal Katchi	17,342	2.48		2	0	2
	Bharatiya Janata Party	9,183	1.32		20	0
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	7,840	1.12		2	0
	Communist Party of India	6,541	0.94		1	0	1
	Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam	5,966	0.85%		1	0
	Independents	70,595	10.12		79	1	2
Total		6,97,900	100.0			30

Aftermath results

N. Rangasamy of AINRC, who won 15 seats, formed government without consulting the AIADMK and was accused of betraying the coalition by J. Jayalalithaa. AINRC secured a majority with the support of an independent V. M. C. Sivakumar.^[4] However, the AINRC's hastiness in forming the government and refusal to share power with pre-election alliance partner AIADMK proved costly in the subsequent elections in 2016.^[5]

Results by constituency