Eastern PA strongman joins UNP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 October 2001, 18:45 GMT]
The People's Alliance strong man in the east, Mr.Somasundaram Ganeshamoorthy, joined the United National Party (UNP) Wednesday. He said that the PA had cheated the Tamil people by not doing anything to solve the Tamil problem. Earlier in the day the state run Tamil daily denied speculation that he was about to cross over.

The paper quoted him as saying on Tuesday: "I would never leave the PA and join the UNP".

Mr.Ganeshamoorthy was the sole Tamil in the north and east of the island to be elected as a PA Member of Parliament at the general elections of October 2000.

Meanwhile, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress surprised voters in by announcing Mr.Rajan Sathiyamoorthy, the long-standing chief Tamil UNP organiser the eastern district as its candidate for the 5 December elections.

TULF sources in Batticaloa, however, said that the inclusion of his name in the Tamil alliance's list of candidates is yet to be decided. They said that TULF's ex-MP for Batticaloa, Mr.Pon Selvarajah may not contest this time.

Mr.Ganeshamoorthy was largely responsible for garnering for Chandrika Kumaratunga at the Presidential election of 1994 the highest percentage of votes to be polled by anybody in an electorate since Sri Lanka's independence.

He was elected MP by a narrow margin in October 2000 and was appointed the Deputy Minister for Ethnic Integration. He lost his portfolio when the PA slashed its oversized cabinet of ministers and their deputies.

His supporters in Batticaloa said that he was disgruntled mainly because the President had not helped him deliver on any of the promises he had made to his voters during the elections last year.