Puducherry Legislative Assembly

Puducherry Legislative Assembly
Puducherry Legislative Assembly
16th Puducherry Assembly
Type
Type	Unicameral
Term limits	5 years
History
Founded	10 May 1965
Leadership
Lieutenant Governor	K. Kailashnathan ; since 7 August 2024
Speaker	A. Anbalagan, AIADMK
Leader of the House; (Chief Minister)	N. Rangaswamy, AINRC
Leader of the Opposition	A. M. H. Nazeem, DMK
Structure
Seats	33
Political groups	Government (21); NDA (21) AINRC (11); BJP (7); AIADMK (1); LJK (1); IND (1); Official Opposition (5) DMK (5); Other Opposition (6); SSJVA (4) TVK (2); NMK (1); INC (1); IND (2) Vacant Vacant (1);
Elections
Voting system	30 seats elected via First past the post; 3 seats nominated by the Lieutenant Governor;
First election	11 August 1959
Last election	9 April 2026
Next election	2031
Meeting place
	Chief Secretariat of Puducherry, Puducherry, Puducherry
Website
	www.py.gov.in

The Puducherry Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian union territory (UT) of Puducherry, which comprises four districts: Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahé and Yanam. Out of eight union territories of India, only three have legislatures and they are Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir. After delimitation shortly after its formation, the Puducherry legislative assembly has 33 seats, of which 3 members are nominated by the Government of India and 30 members are elected directly by the people based on universal adult franchise . The nominated members enjoy the same powers as elected members of the assembly. 5 seats out of 30 directly contested seats are reserved for candidates from scheduled castes.

Geographically, the area under the Puducherry UT consists of three disjointed regions, with Puducherry and Karaikal districts surrounded by districts of Tamil Nadu, Yanam district an enclave of East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, and Mahé district bordered by districts of Kerala. The four districts were ruled by the French before they were integrated into India in 1962. For ease of administration, during French rule, the area under these four districts was divided into 39 assembly constituencies. After becoming a UT of India, Puducherry was divided into 30 assembly constituencies, which were restructured in 2005 by the Delimitation Commission of India.