How Puducherry has voted since 2011 Premium

A detailed analysis of Puducherry’s evolving political landscape and election trends since 2011.

With Puducherry gearing up for another elections on April 9, 2026 it would be interesting to see how voters in the Union Territory have voted in the past three Assembly elections.

Puducherry Assembly has 30 seats. In many ways, the 2011 Assembly elections turned out to be a watershed moment in the political history of Puducherry.

That was the year when the poll results heralded the beginning of the journey of a new regional outfit, the All India N.R. Congress headed by the present Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, that proved itself capable of challenging the dominance of mainstream political parties such as Congress, DMK, AIADMK and Left in the electoral landscape of this former French enclave.

The emergence of a regional political outfit after the Union Territories Act came into force in 1963 capable of forming a government on its own, brought with it several upheavals in Puducherry’s political scene.

More than 15 years after the formation of the party, AINRC continues to remain the fulcrum on which politics of Puducherry is centred, a role once occupied by the Congress.

Mr. Rangasamy was originally a Congress man. After his removal as Chief Minister heading a Congress government in 2008 following a rebellion in the Cabinet, Mr. Rangasamy just days before the 2011 Assembly elections decided to end his decade-old association with the grand old party to form his political outfit, the AINRC. The party went to the polls in alliance with AIADMK and secured 15 of the 18 seats it contested to form a government on its own.