Four of the five parties in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) may refuse to join the Board of Ministers (BoM) of the Northern Province and leave the administration entirely in the hands of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), according to Suresh Premachandran, leader of the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).
Premachandran told Express on Sunday that the ITAK led by R Sampanthan, M A Sumanthiran and Chief Minister-designate C V Wigneswaran, was insisting that it should get two places in the five-member BoM, apart from the Chief Minister’s position. Unlike in the case of the Central government, the number of ministers in a province is fixed by statute, making ministry formation a challenging task.
The ITAK is basing its demand on the basis of the fact that it is the dominant group in the TNA, with 14 out of 30 TNA members in the NPC. Additionally, the TNA had fought the September 21 polls to the NPC under the ITAK’s “House” symbol. The ITAK is oldest Lankan Tamil party. But the non-ITAK parties consider its demand to be a sign of greed.
Premachandran also complained that in the distribution of portfolios, the ITAK and the CM-designate were wanting to take most of the important devolved subjects like Finance, Education and Health, leaving for the other parties minor subjects and those which came under the Concurrent List. “We may ultimately decide to forgo all places in the provincial administration and leave it entirely in the hands of the ITAK, while continuing to be in the TNA,” the MP said.