Sunday, July 28, 2013

Spouse of ex-LTTE bigwig to contest for TNA

Ananthi Sasitharan, wife of the LTTE's former head of the political wing in the Trincomalee District, Elilan, is one of the candidates along with three former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarians to contest the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) polls in September.
The TNA is also seriously considering including a Muslim candidate for the Jaffna District, sources said.
Sasitharan is presently a clerical servant at the District Secretariat in Kilinochchi. She has also filed a case at the Vavuniya High Court, over the disappearance of her spouse, Elilan, who is alleged to have gone missing soon after he was taken into custody along with several other key LTTE cadres, who had surrendered to the Security Forces in 2009.

In the meantime, three former TNA Parliamentarians, V. Anandasangaree, D. Sitharthan and M.K. Sivajilingam are also contesting the NPC polls. They will be handing over their nominations along with the TNA's Chief Ministerial candidate, C.V. Vigneswaran, at the Jaffna District Secretariat tomorrow, 29 July.

The Ceylon Labour Party and Janasetha Peramuna filed their nominations in Jaffna on Thursday and Friday respectively. One independent candidate has also paid the deposit at the Jaffna District Secretariat, sources said. Meanwhile, a group of Muslim educationists from Jaffna had met TNA Leader, R. Sampanthan, in Colombo to discuss the NPC polls, last week. Following the discussion, the TNA is considering including a Muslim of Jaffna origin as a TNA candidate, sources revealed.

The TNA's chief ministerial candidate is currently in Jaffna meeting other candidates, who have been selected to contest in the NPC polls from the TNA.

TNA spokesperson and Jaffna District Parliamentarian, Suresh K. Premachandran, told Ceylon Today the nominations in all five electoral districts will be handed over tomorrow.

By Ananth Palakidnar
CT