Sivageetha supports SF TMVP in a quandary

By Ramesh Warellagama

Clashes are brewing in the TMVP after Batticaloa Mayor Sivageetha Prabhakaran who represented UPFA decided to support General Fonseka.
Sivageetha Prabhakaran earlier secretary of the TMVP and later joined the UPFA to become mayor when she obtained membership of the SLFP.
She was first supported by Pilleyan’s followers and after she became mayor, by Minister Karuna Amman’s supporters as well. As a result she had people from both parties with her.
“People of Batticaloa like to see a change. My political future depends on what they like,” she said.
People of the East must be given industrial development at personal level but nothing like that has happened yet, she said. However, she says that she wouldn’t leave the UPFA and that she is happy to support General Fonseka.
The importance of her decision does not lie in the fact that she is the mayor of Batticoloa but in the fact whether this decision will cause a change in the position of Karuna’s and Pilleyan’s supporters.
Minister Vinayagamurthi Muralidaran alias Karuna Amman and Eastern Province Chief Minister Pilleyan have already announced their support for the president but the enmity between the two parties has come into the open with the presidential election. At the beginning media were informed by internal sources of the TMVP that the president will not receive the support of the TMVP.
But TMVP leader Pilleyan came forward to declare the reports false. He announced through state media that he and his party will support the president.
Karuna Amman said that his supporters and as whole all the people of East are ready to support the president as Karuna Amman is the minister of national integration and reconciliation as well as SLFP vice president. However supporters of the two men clashed during the election campaign despite the fact they both supported the same candidate. In a clash between the two groups in Ampara six men from both sides were injured and an official vehicle of Pilleyan was burnt.
As a result of this people in the East have been divided between Karuna and Pilleyan. Considering supporters of the two stalwarts, it appears that Karuna has more power than Pilleyan but TMVP too has 10,000 men working at village level for the president’s victory, as announced by Pilleyan recently.
In a situation like this, Sivageetha Prabhakaran’s decision, if it is not seen as a trend that comes from her particualar family background, will pose a challenge to the two major parties that represent people of the East, Karuna Amman and Pilleyan.