The All India N.R. Congress, formed months before the vote, topped Puducherry's assembly election in its first contest, unseating the sitting Indian National Congress government.

It won 15 of the 30 seats — short of a majority on its own.

Together with its allies it controlled 20 seats, enough to form the territory's government.

The INC fell to 7 seats on 25.3% of the vote.

Rangasamy, Puducherry's sitting chief minister, resigned from the Indian National Congress and announced a new party, the All India N R Congress (AINRC), at its head office in Pondicherry on 7 February 2011.¹

Rangasamy allied his new party with the AIADMK, the CPI(M), the CPI and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, with AINRC contesting 17 seats and the AIADMK 10, to challenge the sitting government.²

Congress, contesting 17 seats of its own, led a rival alliance with the DMK on 10 seats, the Pattali Makkal Katchi on 2 and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi on 1, backing incumbent Chief Minister Vaithilingam.³

The Bharatiya Janata Party joined neither bloc, contesting on its own, with national leaders Nitin Gadkari and Sushma Swaraj campaigning for its candidates.⁴

Rangasamy himself filed nominations in both Indira Nagar and Kadirkamam, the first time any candidate had contested multiple constituencies in the territory's history, ahead of nominations closing on 26 March. Polling followed on 13 April and counting on 13 May.⁵⁶

This was the first election held on Puducherry's redrawn 2008 boundaries.⁷

It also ended INC's run leading the territory's government.

The INC had won 6 elections in a row before this one.

The AINRC itself did not exist at the previous election — it grew from 0 seats to 15 this time.

Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, slipped to 84.7%.

The tightest finish: Neravy T.R. Pattinam, Puducherry was decided by 358 votes — the narrowest margin, how far ahead the winner finished over whoever came second, anywhere in the territory that year.

At the other extreme, Embalam, Puducherry was won by 93.7% of the vote — the same seat that also recorded the lowest turnout anywhere that year, 50.0%.

Yanam, Puducherry recorded the highest turnout in the territory, 95.8%, and also drew the most candidates, 10.

Ariankuppam, Puducherry was the territory's largest constituency by registered voters, with 30,970 names on the rolls.

Puducherry became a Union Territory in 1963, when France's former Indian territories of Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam were combined under a single elected Legislative Assembly with 30 members.⁸

Its 30 constituencies were redrawn again under a fresh delimitation process in 2008, first used at this election, while the territory's total seat count and reserved-seat allocation stayed unchanged.⁷

5 parties won at least one seat this time, including 1 that went to independents.