Rangaswamy contested his first election as the
Indian National Congress candidate from
Thattanchavady Assembly constituency during the
1990 Pondicherry Legislative Assembly election. However, he lost the elections to V. Pethaperumal of the
Janata Dal (JD) by 982 votes. However, the fall of the JD-led government led to the elections to the
Pondicherry Legislative Assembly in
1991. Rangaswamy contested from the same constituency, and was elected as a member of the legislative assembly, after defeating Pethaperumal by 7,260 votes. He was appointed as the minister of agriculture and co-operation in the cabinet led by
V. Vaithilingam. he was appointed as the minister for tourism, education, public works, civil aviation and art & culture in the
R. V. Janakiraman cabinet. He served as the minister for public works, agriculture and forests in the
Pondicherry government under the
chief ministership of
P. Shanmugam from March 2000 to October 2001. However, following an internal strife within the Congress party, and faced with revolt from his fellow lawmakers, Rangaswamy offered his resignation as the chief minister on 28 August 2008, and was succeeded by Vaithiligam as the chief minister on 4 September 2008. Later, on 21 January 2011, he resigned his position as the member of the legislative assembly, and quit the Congress party. in March 2015 Ahead of the
2011 assembly elections, Rangaswamy announced the formation of a new party,
All India N.R. Congress (AINRC), on 7 February 2011. In the assembly elections held in April 2011, AINRC contested the elections in an alliance with the
J. Jayalalithaa-led
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), and won 15 out of the 17 seats it contested. However, after the results, AINRC formed the government independently, with the support of an
Independent, which enabled it to get a majority in the 30-seat assembly. Rangaswamy won from the
Kadirkamam Assembly constituency, and was sworn in the chief minister of Puducherry for the third time on 16 May 2011. In the
2016 assembly elections, AINRC was not part of any coalition after the AIADMK refused an alliance, and contested alone in all the 30 seats. Though Rangaswamy won from the
Indira Nagar Assembly constituency, He later served as the
leader of the opposition in the Puducherry assembly from August 2016 to February 2021. the
2021 legislative assembly elections were held in April 2021. The AINRC became part of the
National Democratic Alliance and allied with the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AIADMK. The NDA won 16 seats with AINRC winning 10 of the 16 seats it contested in the elections. While Rangaswamy won from Indira Nagar, He was sworn in as the chief minister of Puducherry for the fourth time on 7 May 2021 with the support of the BJP and independents. == Policies and governance ==