Colombo, Nov 13 (PTI) Sri Lanka's main Tamil party theTNA appears to be headed for a split ahead of the localelections in the Northern Province, which is considered astronghold of the ethnic community.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) comprises the EelamPeople's Revolutionary Liberation Front, Illankai Tamil ArasuKachchi, People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam andTamil Eelam Liberation Organisation. It controls theprovincial government in the Northern Province.
The moderate and the nationalist factions of the TNA heldseparate meetings over the weekend in Vanuviya and Jaffna todiscuss their course of action, political sources said.
Veteran Tamil politician Suresh Premachandran said hisEelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) hasdecided not to work with the TNA.
"It (TNA) is running a one man show, taking arbitrarydecisions," he remarked.
Premachandran said it was wrong for the TNA to supportthe interim report of the constitutional assembly, which isexpected to lead to the new Constitution.
The interim report is expected to lead to a new draftConstitution offering a solution acceptable to the minorityTamils.
He said the EPRLF would team up with the Tamil People'sCouncil (TPC) to contest the local election, which is likelyto be held by January end.
A meeting of the TNA in Vavuniya was meant to discussapparent discontent among its constituent parties and on theneed to resolve internal disagreement through dialogue.
"We did not discuss any differences. There aren't manydifferences. We discussed the stance to be taken on thegovernment budget, we are yet to make a decision on whether tosupport the government in the budget," M A Sumanthiran, aleading TNA legislator from the moderate group, said.
The other faction of the TNA, which is led by thenorthern chief minister C V Wigneswaran, met in Jaffna.
Wigneswaran, the nationalist hardliner, does not see eyeto eye with the moderate TNA faction headed by the mainopposition leader R Sampanthan.
Wigneswaran has been promoting the TPC as an alternativeto the TNA. At the Jaffna parley, he appealed for capable,qualified young Tamil men to come forward to contest theelection.
"If they don't give a reasonable solution to ethnic issueit would lead to a more complained situation," Wigneswaranreportedly said.
Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya arethe five districts that constitute the Northern Province,which was the main theatre of the Sri Lankan civil war.
Sri Lanka has a population of 18.5 million of whom themajority are Sinhalese (74 per cent). Other ethnic groups aremade up of Sri Lankan Tamils (12.6 per cent), Indian Tamils(5.5 per cent).
According to the government figures, around 20,000 peopleare missing due to various conflicts including the civil warwith Lankan Tamils in the north and east which claimed atleast 100,000 lives. PTI COR KIS AKJKIS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.