ITAK confident of passing motion against Chief Minister

The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), which is the largest constituent of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), is confident of passing the proposed No Confidence Motion against the Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran.

Jaffna District MP M.A.Sumanthiran told newsin.asia on Friday, that the ITAK has the numbers with 15 having signed the memorandum submitted to the Governor and another seven pledging support.

With 22 of the 38 members of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) supporting the motion, it will be passed. To get through the motion needs only 20 votes.

The Chief Minister’s side has 15 members as per the petition that it gave to the Governor Reginold Cooray on Thursday

The Governor has asked the Chief Minister to prove his majority on the floor of the House within seven days.

Asked if the Tamil Diaspora could fund horse trading ahead of the vote to upset the ITAK’s calculations, Sumanthiran said that the party is aware of the possibility of a section of the extremist Diaspora pumping in money for this purpose. But he hopes that NPC members will not be swayed by Mammon and will stick to commitments made on Wednesday.

Asked to comment on the propaganda that the ITAK would be diluting its Tamilness by taking the support of Muslims and Sinhalese, and the Sinhalese dominated United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), Sumanthiran said that it is not shameful to take the support of these groups because the test is on whether the Chief Minister has majority support in the House or not, and not whether he has majority support in a particular community.

Furthermore, it is not fair to say that Muslims and Sinhalese in the NPC should not be taken into account and that the Tamilness of the NPC or the Northern administration must be maintained. Muslims and Sinhalese are also part of the Northern Province with representation in the NPC and their interests and views must be factored in, he said.

On how the bid to bring about a compromise failed, Sumanthiran said that Wigneswaran had indicated that he was ready for a compromise but apparently some influenced him into backing out. And the moment he saw the crowd of supporters he said that he had fears but they evaporated the moment he saw them.

However, Suresh Premachandran, leader of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), said that it was the ITAK leader R.Sampanthan who backed out of the compromise. Sampanthan told Wigneswaran that he would consult his colleagues and come back, but he didn’t come back, Premachandran said. (newsin.asia)