Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi on Tuesday triggered political unrest by administering the oath of office to three MLAs nominated to the Legislative Assembly by the Bharatiya Janata Party Centre, The Times of India reported on Wednesday. Bedi’s sudden move to appoint BJP’s Puducherry chief V Saminathan, treasurer KG Shankar and pro-BJP educationist S Selvaganapathy is rare as it is generally the Speaker who appoints lawmakers.

The Congress government in Puducherry plans on moving the court against the three nominations. The government believed that the three individuals would be sworn in only after the Madras High Court gave an order on the Public Interest Litigation filed by parliamentary secretary to the Chief Minister, K Lakshminarayanan, seeking a stay on the appointment of the nominated MLAs, The Hindu reported.

The three had called on Bedi, Chief Secretary Manoj Parida and Assembly Speaker V Vaithilingam. When they attempted to give Vaithilingam copies of the Centre’s order nominating them as members, he directed them to submit the documents to the Assembly secretary. Meanwhile, Parida issued a gazette notification re-publishing the Centre’s order.

Following the development, the Congress late on Tuesday convened a meeting of its alliance partners to chalk out a strategy, including a bandh. The Congress has decided to organise several forms of protest against Bedi’s action, and released First Information Report copies of cases pending against Saminathan and Selvaganapathy. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has already announced its plan for a bandh on July 8, along with 24 other pro-Tamil outfits.

The Puducherry government and LG Kiran Bedi have been at loggerheads prior to this incident. On June 16, the Assembly had passed a resolution asking the central government to curtail the powers of the lieutenant governor, on the allegation that Bedi was not cooperating with the state government.