Simmering discontent within TNA threatens to explode

by K.T. Rajasingham

Discontent is simmering within four constituent political parties of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), as the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi has shown a reluctance to register the new political party, the Tamil National Alliance.

There are five political parties within the TNA, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE).

Suresh Premachandran

Retired Judge C.V. Vigneswaran

Four constituent parties of TNA are continuously demanding the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi to register the Tamil National Alliance as a new political Party.

It is alleged that the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi and its leader R. Sampanthan have so far not come forward to register the Tamil National Alliance as a political party by embracing the other four constituent parties as equal partners.

The four constituent parties are of the opinion that Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi is purposely ignoring their demand and gradually strong discontent is emerging in their midst.

On April 16, a meeting was held at the office of Suresh Premachandran M.P, at Kaddaiparai, Kalviyankadu.

Four-party meeting

Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front Leader Suresh Premachandran speaking to Asian Tribune said, “We had a four-party meeting even though V. Anandasangari was away in India, but representatives of other parties participated.

He said, it has been decided to hold a meeting of the five constituent parties of the TNA before the end of this month to finalise registering the TNA as a political party. He also said, civil society groups and Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar are showing keen interest to avoid a split within the TNA.

He said that regarding party registration, no final decision has been made and this week when Parliament will be in session, they may discuss with R. Sampanthan and other members of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi and arrive at a final decision.

He said, “In case Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi is not prepared to tow the line, we have to decide to come out as TNA excluding them.

Northern Provincial Council election

When questioned about the forthcoming Northern Provincial Council Election, Suresh Premachandran said, “no discussion regarding it has so far taken place”.

Asked whether there was any discussion on the subject of Provincial Council election at the last meeting held at Kalviyankadu, Premachandran said that the Kalviyankadu meeting was not about the provincial council election. At that meeting we only discussed about the registration of TNA as a political party.

He firmly denied that there were any talks about the provincial council election and also about whether retired Supreme Court Judge Vigneswaran will be the chief ministerial candidate of the TNA.

Minister Nanayakkara, whose daughter is married to Vigneswaran’s son, said that he had verified this matter and it is highly unlikely the Judge will be a Chief Ministerial candidate. He added, these are only rumours and speculation.

But we don’t know whether Sampanthan had any discussion with retired Judge Vigneswaran. However in case he comes forward to contest as a TNA candidate, then there might be a possibility of accepting his candidature, but the TNA as a whole has so far not met and discussed this matter.

He said, may be Sampanthan might have taken up this matter at his own discretion and discussed it with Vigneswaran.

Memorial meeting

When it was pointed out that the focus is already on retired. Justice Vigneswaran and he delivered the keynote address at the 36th annual memorial lecture of S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, on Friday at Sri Kathiresan hall, Colombo.

Parliamentarian Premachandran said that he was not aware of any such focus concentrated on Vigneswaran by inviting him to deliver the keynote address, but he pointed out that this memorial meeting was organised by N. Vidhyatharan, former Editor of Uthayan newspaper, who is a cousin of Sampanthan and brother-in-law of TNA MP Saravanapavan.

Premachandran also said that Vidhyatharan has already expressed privately and within party circles of his desire to be the chief ministerial candidate on behalf Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi at the Northern Provincial Council election.

He said, “We learnt that Vidhyatharan had an argument with Sampanthan after seeing a proposal circulating earlier that Mavai Senathirajah will be the chief ministerial candidate on behalf of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi”.

The five-party TNA has so far not discussed anything about the Provincial Council election to date, Premachandran said.

He went on to say, “At the last Eastern Provincial Council election we, the other four parties in the TNA were given five seats to contest in the Batticaloa district and we won four seats, whereas Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kandchchi fielded nine candidates and they managed to win only two seats.

“Even at the last Parliamentary General Elections, in the Vanni electoral district they nominated Soosaithasan, a former MP for Mannar and many others, unfortunately all their candidates failed to win a seat,” he said.

Even when you analyse the parliamentary election results of the Jaffna electoral district, except for Mavai S. Senathirajah no one else who contested as Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi candidate won a seat, Premachandran said.

“In the case of E. Saravanapavan, S. Sritharan and A. Vinayagamoorthy,” he said, “they in fact contested and won as TNA candidates.”

This is the ground reality regarding popularity, he pointed out.

He said that out of the four parties in the TNA, though there are only elected parliamentarians in two parties, we cannot be counted out or ignored as ‘not a powerful political force’ within the Tamil community. We are equally a force to be reckoned with, he said.

Courtesy: Asian Tribune