N. Rangaswamy

Natesan Rangaswamy (born 4 August 1950) is an Indian politician who is serving as the Chief Minister of Puducherry since May 2021. He has previously served as the chief minister from 2001 to 2008 and from 2011 to 2016. He is the founding president of the political party All India N. R. Congress (AINRC), which was formed after a breakaway from the Indian National Congress in 2011. Born in 1950, Rangaswamy completed his Bachelor of Commerce from Tagore Arts College and Bachelor of Laws from Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College in Puducherry in 1977. He contested his first election as the Congress candidate from Thattanchavady Assembly constituency during the 1990 Pondicherry Legislative Assembly election. He was elected as a member of the Pondicherry Legislative Assembly for four consecutive times from the same constituency, having first won in 1991. He served as a cabinet minister from 1991 to 2001, under three different chief ministers. He became the chief minister of Pondicherry for the first time in October 2001, and was re-appointed to the position after the Congress won the 2006 assembly elections. Rangaswamy stepped down as the chief minister in August 2008 after internal issues within the party. Citing reconcilable differences, he formed his own party, AINRC, and contested in the 2011 assembly elections. He was elected as a member from the Kadirkamam constituency and was sworn in the chief minister for the third time in May 2016. He served as the leader of the opposition in the assembly from August 2016 to February 2021. His party won the 2021 assembly elections as a part of the National Democratic Alliance and he was sworn in as the chief minister for the fourth time on 7 May 2021. The alliance won a majority in the subsequent 2026 assembly elections, and Rangaswamy was...