{"id":37733,"date":"2015-01-25T15:49:03","date_gmt":"2015-01-25T20:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=37733"},"modified":"2015-01-25T15:49:03","modified_gmt":"2015-01-25T20:49:03","slug":"tussle-between-tamil-national-alliance-and-muslim-congress-for-post-of-eastern-province-chief-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=37733","title":{"rendered":"Tussle Between Tamil National Alliance and Muslim Congress for Post of Eastern Province Chief Minister."},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy <\/p>\n

Manekshaw
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the political parties that played a significant role in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in defeating former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the presidential election, have turned against each other over the Chief Minister post at the Eastern Provincial Council.<\/p>\n

A couple of days ago, the TNA and the SLMC leaders had separate meetings with President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, over the Eastern Province Chief Minister post, citing the instability of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA)-led Eastern Provincial Council.<\/p>\n

Responding to the issue over the Eastern Province Chief Minister post, President Sirisena suggested the TNA and the SLMC to have a flexible approach and arrive at an amicable decision, instead of his intervention into the issue.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, TNA Parliamentarian and its spokesperson, Suresh K. Premachandran, told Ceylon Today that President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, during their meeting with the TNA delegation led by R. Sampanthan on Thursday (22) accepted the stance taken by the TNA on appointing its nominee as the new Eastern Province Chief Minister and the Alliance was confident it could form a TNA-led Provincial Council in the Eastern Province.<\/p>\n

The SLMC is of the view that as the TNA-led Northern Province has a Tamil Chief Minister, the Eastern Province should have a Muslim Chief Minister representing the SLMC.<\/p>\n

At the Eastern Provincial Council election in 2012, the TNA was ready to join hands with the SLMC and take control of the Eastern Provincial Council.<\/p>\n

TNA’s initial offer<\/strong><\/p>\n

At that time, TNA Leader Sampanthan pleaded with the SLMC leadership to join hands with the TNA and the veteran politician even offered the Chief Minister post to the SLMC in the Eastern Provincial Council, in order to prevent the UPFA from taking the upper hand in the region by overriding the two minority parties.<\/p>\n

The SLMC, being a constituent party of the UPFA, rejected the TNA offer and supported the UPFA to lead the Eastern Provincial Council. Following the backing of the SLMC and the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP), the UPFA took control of the Eastern Provincial Council and appointed Najeeb A. Majeed as the first Muslim Chief Minister in 2012.<\/p>\n

Being a constituent party in the UPFA, the SLMC was, until the last moment, more like a ‘cat on the wall’ regarding whom they were going to support at the recently concluded presidential election.<\/p>\n

It was after the mega rallies conducted by the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), with an overwhelming support to President Sirisena in the Eastern Province, led by Minister Rishad Bathiudeen who became the first Muslim Minister to quit the UPFA, the SLMC leadership finally decided to go in favour of President Sirisena.<\/p>\n

The farsightedness of the veteran TNA Leader in deciding on the necessity of Tamils and Muslims uniting their strengths as a single entity was very well proven at the presidential election.<\/p>\n

The SLMC even learnt bitter lessons in the Uva and the Northern Provincial Council elections, for supporting the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, which was accused of alleged atrocities committed against Muslims in the recent years.<\/p>\n

Therefore, by extending its support to President Sirisena, mainly on the insistence of the majority of the party members, the SLMC had made a wise move and prevented itself from facing a catastrophic political future.<\/p>\n

Stabilizing vote bank<\/strong><\/p>\n

After gaining ground again in the political arena, the SLMC is currently focused more towards stabilizing its vote bank in the Eastern Province in order to face the parliamentary polls, which is expected to be held in the middle of the year.<\/p>\n

The fact that the SLMC is insisting on appointing a Muslim as a Chief Minister in an Eastern Provincial Council led by the SLMC has clearly indicated that the party has already taken its first step to target the Muslim votes in the province at the parliamentary polls.<\/p>\n

The Eastern Provincial Council has a total of 37 members. The ruling UPFA has 13 members supported by the SLMC’s seven members and the two members from the TMVP. The TNA with 11 seats remain as the main Opposition party at the EPC.<\/p>\n

However, the TMVP, which was instrumental in forming the first Eastern Provincial Council by aligning with the UPFA in 2008, has now decided to extend its support to the TNA to form the Eastern Provincial Council.<\/p>\n

The United National Party (UNP), which has two seats at the EPC, has also expressed its willingness to support the TNA in gaining control of the EPC.<\/p>\n

The TNA’s offer of the Chief Minister post to the SLMC in 2012 indicates that the TNA had never intended to isolate the Muslims in the Eastern Province. Therefore, the scuffle between the SLMC and the TNA, both of whom are aspiring to take control of the Eastern Provincial Council, is more akin to a ‘storm in a tea cup’ situation. <\/p>\n

The two sides must be flexible, in the greater interest of the people in the province, who had joined hands to overthrow the Rajapaksa regime.
\n
\nCourtesy:Ceylon Today<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Manekshaw The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the political parties that played a significant role in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in defeating former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the presidential election, have turned against each other over the Chief Minister post at the Eastern Provincial Council. A couple …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Tussle Between Tamil National Alliance and Muslim Congress for Post of Eastern Province Chief Minister.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37734,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37733\/revisions\/37734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}