We met Douglas to seek support: Sumanthiran
09-Jun-2025.
"Even when we spoke to the Democratic Tamil National Alliance and the Tamil National People's Front, we only put forward the principle that they should cooperate to form the government in the councils that won the most seats, but we did not talk about anything based on policies, and on the same basis, talks were held with Douglas Devananda, the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, and we did not talk about anything based on policies," said MA Sumanthiran, the acting general secretary of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi.
"After the local government elections, our party's political committee met in Vavuniya on Mar 10. At that time, a resolution was passed that the party that won the most seats in each council in the local government elections in the North and East should cooperate to form the government, and this was not limited to the Tamil National parties alone, and we had announced it publicly."
"In such a context, we are not currently saying that we will form an alliance with anyone. Rather, we are requesting other parties to cooperate in forming the government in the assemblies where we have the most seats. We have formed an alliance only in a few places including Trincomalee, and that has been done openly."
"Similarly, when we spoke to the Democratic Tamil National Alliance and the Tamil National People's Front earlier, we only presented the principle that they should cooperate in forming the government in the assemblies where they have the most seats, but we did not talk based on principles. It was on the same basis that negotiations were also held with Douglas Devananda, the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party."
"Also, there is severe criticism of the party's acting president C.V.K. Sivagnanam's meeting with him at the Sridhar Theater. However, the acting president's position is that if we request a meeting, we should go to their place and talk to them. He has followed this in the past as well. That is why he went to meet Douglas Devananda at his party headquarters, the Sridhar Theater," he said.
