Puducherry, December 23: AIADMK State Secretary A Anbazhagan, MLA, today demanded resignation of the Congress government in the Puducherry owing moral responsibility for it’s failure to get statehood for the Union Territory.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr Anbazhagan claimed that the Union Home Ministry had written a letter to Puducherry Chief Secretary four days back stating that it could not grant statehood for Puducherry.
Mr Anbazhagan also demanded resignation of Union Minister of State for Planning, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture V Narayansami as statehood was his main election plank in the Lok Sabha elections here.
On July 15, 1998, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalitha had called on the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and urged him to grant special category state status to the Union Territory and the Centre had taken a decision in principle to grant it, he claimed, adding, however, because of the change of the government, the decision could not be implemented then. Subsequently, the BJP and the Congress were in power at the Centre with the support of the DMK and no decision on statehood for Puducherry was taken, he alleged.
—Agencies