All TNA MPs attend parliamentary group meeting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 April 2004, 15:36 GMT]
Dismissing reports carried by the Sri Lankan State-controlled electronic and print media that they had decided to function as a separate group, the 5 Tamil National Alliance MPs from the Batticaloa and Amparai districts participated at the first TNA parliamentary group meeting held Tuesday evening in Colombo along with the 15 TNA MPs elected from other districts of the Northeast, and Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, the senior TNA leader, was unanimously elected as the leader of the TNA parliamentary group at this meeting, TNA sources said.

Mr. Sampanthan has represented the Trincomalee district in parliament over a long period and is the Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), a constituent of the TNA.

According to TNA sources, Batticaloa and Amparai TNA parliamentarians have agreed to work as one group with the TNA MPs of the other districts in the northeast province, advocating the concepts of Tamil nationalism, northeast as traditional homeland of Tamils and also accepting the LTTE leadership as the sole representative of Tamils.

The first parliamentary group meeting is still in progress, discussing the selection of two persons for the posts of parliamentarians in the national list, TNA sources said. Mr.Jospeh Pararajasingham, Senior Vice President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) who represented the Batticaloa district for a long time but failed to obtain enough preference votes at Friday's general elections in the district, and Mr.M.K.Eelaventhan are likely to be made national list parliamentarians, the sources said.