WIGNESWARAN
The TNA strongly tipped to romp home as winners in the Northern provincial stakes made a grand spectacle of filing nomination papers by going in procession. Its star chief ministerial candidate CV Wigneswaran who heads the Jaffna district candidate list filed nominations along with other candidates in “Yaarlpaanam”.HewasaccompaniedbyTNA parliamentarians Somasuntharam “Mavai”Senathirajah, Kandiah Premachandran alias Suresh and MA Sumanthiran. The retired Supreme Court judge Wigneswaran clad in silk “verti and Saalvai” with his flowing beard madeastrikingimpression.
In Kilinochchi veteran Tamil politician Ve e r a s i n g h a m Aanandasangaree filed nominations. Sangaree as he is known represented the Kilinochchi electorate in Parliament from 1970 – 83 and was greatly responsible for demarcating Kilinochchi as a separate administrative district. TNA Parliamentarian Sivagnanam Shritharan accompanied the candidates but maintained a “distance” with Aanandasangaree.
Mannar saw chief candidate G. Gunareelan accompanied by Parliamentarian Adaikkalanathan alias Selvam filing nominations. In Vavuniya chief candidate M. Thiyagarajah along with Sivasakthy Anandan MP submitted nominations. Anton Jeyanathan was the chief candidate in Mullaitivu. He was accompanied by MP Vinotharahalingam.
Altogether the TNA exercise of filing nominations was undertaken enthusiastically with the confidence of victory being in sight. Many of the candidates are educated or retired professionals. Apart from retired Supreme Court Judge Wigneswaran there are retired directors of education, several medical doctors, lawyers, teachers, administrators and engineers in the list. Three former MPs -Anandasangaree, Dhar malingam Siddharthan and MK Sivajilingam are also candidates. Three of the 51 candidates are women. A few youth and student activists are also in the fray.