The All India N.R. Congress took power in Puducherry as part of a new alliance, after the Indian National Congress government collapsed before voters went to the polls.

It won 10 of the 30 seats on its own — a hung house, where no single party wins enough seats to govern alone.

It governed instead through the NDA alliance, which held 16 seats.

Its nearest rival, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, won 6 seats.

Five Congress MLAs, including two ministers, and one DMK MLA resigned from the Puducherry assembly in the weeks before, and the Lieutenant Governor called a trust vote that the Narayanasamy government lost. Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy resigned on 22 February, and President's Rule was imposed in Puducherry on 25 February, ahead of the assembly election.¹

The AINRC, led by former chief minister N. Rangasamy, then sealed a seat-sharing pact with the BJP and the AIADMK to contest the election together. Under the agreement, AINRC contested 16 of the 30 seats, with the remaining 14 divided between its two partners.²

Congress, in turn, contested as part of a United Progressive Alliance grouping with the DMK, the Communist Party of India and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi. It fielded candidates in 14 seats to DMK's 13, ahead of the 6 April poll.³

INC's support then collapsed at the ballot box too.

The single biggest movement ran from INC to Bharatiya Janata Party, covering 5 of the 22 seats that changed hands.

AINRC itself grew from 8 seats to 10 seats this time.

Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, fell -3.2 pp from the previous election.

The closest race was at Karaikal North, Puducherry, decided by 135 votes.

Indira Nagar, Puducherry had the widest margin of the election, at 63.4% of the vote.

Yanam, Puducherry recorded the highest turnout in the territory, 91.0%.

Villianur, Puducherry was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 43,297 on its rolls.

NOTA — None of the Above, a ballot option letting voters formally reject every candidate on offer — drew 10,803 votes, 1.3% of the total.

5 parties won at least one seat, and independents took 6 more.

N. Rangasamy left the Indian National Congress and founded the All India N.R. Congress in 2011, after serving as Chief Minister.⁴

That new party went on to contest the Puducherry election that year in alliance with the AIADMK, and won the largest number of seats.⁴

The territory's 30 assembly seats had last been redrawn in 2008, when total seats and five Scheduled Caste reservations were kept unchanged.⁵