TamilNet Batticaloa correspondent elected TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 April 2004, 14:21 GMT]
Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, TamilNet’s correspondent for Batticaloa has been elected as a Tamil National Alliance Member of Parliament for the eastern district, election officials said Saturday. He received 44457 personal preference votes. The Tamil National Alliance won a landslide victory in Batticaloa and got four of the district’s five seats.

Mr. Thanmanpillai Kanagasabhai, got the highest number of preference votes (57843) among Batticaloa TNA candidates. He is from the large village of Kaluthavalai, 20 kilometres south of Batticaloa. Mr. Kanagasabhai retired as the Assistant Director of Agriculture for Batticaloa. He worked in the World Bank funded North East Irrigated Agriculture Project and was a consultant to the World Food Program in the district.

Ms. Thangeswari Kadiraman, the government cultural officer for Batticaloa and an archaeology graduate, got 50545 votes. The fourth TNA candidate to be elected MP for Batticaloa is Mr. Kingsley Rasanayagam. He has got 38633 preference votes. Mr. Rasanayagam was an officer at the People’s Bank in Batticaloa.

He was very closely associated with the Liberation Tigers in the eighties. He gave up his job in the bank and went with the LTTE to the Vanni when war broke out in 1990. While in the north he worked for the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation.