TNA agrees to hijack Tamils for 'unconditional' support to Maithiri

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2014, 18:50 GMT]
At a so-called high-level meeting held Monday in Colombo between the main delegation of the Sri Lankan opposition and the constituent parties of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the national list parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran has promised TNA's unconditional support to Maithiripala Sirisena, informed TNA sources told TamilNet. "The opposition was not prepared to provide any assurance to Tamils. Suresh Premachandran of the EPRLF raised certain questions that on what promises the opposition is expecting the support of the Tamils. There was none from the opposition. The discussion on the topic was knocked down by TNA's national list parliamentarian in front of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickramasinghe," the source further told TamilNet. 

Any promise extended by the opposition would be counter-productive as it would disperse the votes from the South, Mr Sumanthiran, who dominated the agenda of the meeting, was telling the delegates.

"I have met the grassroots in the North and East. 98% wants to support Maithiripala. Only 2% is opposed to it," Mr Sumanthiran has claimed. 

Three 'election campaign managers' were also identified from Jaffna, Vanni and Batticaloa on behalf of the TNA.

Lawyer Navanathan from Jaffna, ITAK member Senathiraja from Vanni and Gowrysankar from Batticaloa have been 'appointed' as election campaign managers for the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Sirisena on behalf of the TNA.

TELO's Selvam Adaikalanathan, ITAK's Mavai Senthirajah and M.A. Sumanthiran and PLOTE's Dharmalingam Siddharthan were present at the meeting

TNA's Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan would be going public with the official position after he returns from India on 26th of December, the sources further said.

Commenting, a leading ITAK stalwart in Jaffna told TamilNet Monday that the Tamil people now have a duty to give a lesson not only to the powers that stage the drama, but also to the TNA, which is bankrupt of a political-agenda for Tamils, by abstaining from the voting or invalidating their votes on the presidential polls.