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DPF, NUW, UPF come together as Tamil Progressive Alliance
View(s):With General elections around the corner, three Tamil political parties united this week to launch a new alliance called the ‘Tamil Progressive Alliance’ (TPA), to fight for the political rights of the upcountry people and those living outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Democratic People’s Front leader Mano Ganesan was elected leader of the alliance while National Union of Workers leader Palani Digambaran and Upcountry People’s Front leader V. Radhakrishnan were appointed Deputy leaders. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the three party leaders in Colombo on Tuesday.
Mr Ganesan said around 1.5 million Tamils are living outside the North and East, and their goal is to represent them in the next Parliament with a clear road map ahead. “Even though, traditionally, we are close to the United National Party (UNP), we are yet to decide if we are to contest under the UNP ticket or independently. Once elections are announced, we will decide on that,” he said.
The TPA intends to field candidates in the Central and North-Central Provinces, including Colombo, Kandy, Gampaha, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Ratnapura and Puttalam. Mr Ganesan said, as it is a new party, he is expecting to hold formal discussions with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) on their policies and ideologies.
Meanwhile, the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), the largest trade union in the upcountry, said the new alliance formed by some of the parties rooted in the upcountry will never pose a threat to its politics or vote bank. CWC Leader Muthu Sivalingam told the Sunday Times that his party has been the voice of the upcountry people for the last 75 years. “There were some alliances with similar ideologies in the past too, but they disappeared after a while. People know the truth,” he said.
Mr Sivalingam said that, as one of the constituent parties in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the CWC will face the upcoming General election under the UPFA banner.