Pillayan paddles his own boat

By Ramesh Warallegama

The Tamil Makkal Vidugal Pulikal, (TMVP), headed by Pillayan has decided to go it alone at the forthcoming parliamentary polls, general secretary A. Kailesvararajah told LAKBIMAnEWS.
The TMVP Central Committee met yesterday at the party office in Batticaloa to decide the party’s position at the forthcoming general election.
Kailesvararajah said that according to the decision taken at the meeting, the TMVP would contest alone under the symbol ‘boat’.
Since its advent to mainstream politics, the TMVP led by Eastern Province Chief Minister, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, contested elections as a constituent party of the United Peoples Freedom Front (UPFA) and swept the boards in the previous local government and provincial council elections held in the Eastern Province.
The apparent schism with the ruling UPFA comes in the wake of the reports of increasing rivalry between TMVP supporters and the supporters of Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, a SLFP vice president.