Northern Province Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran on Tuesday dismissed TNA spokesperson MA Sumanthiran's threat to sack him from the Tamil National Alliance and accused party leader R Sampanthan and Mr Sumanthiran of wanting to be in the good books of the new government whilst ignoring Tamil demands.
Mr Wigneswaran said he was able to remain "neutral" with regards to party politics as he was not a member of any of the political parties that make up the TNA.
The chief minister pointed that he had only agreed to be a candidate on the condition that he would be supported by all parties and that he was, in reality, a candidate of the people of the Northern Province which was why he got 130,000 preferential votes. Therefore, his only commitment would be to the voters, the New Indian Express quoted him as saying.
“The TNA is not a registered party, it is an alliance of four parties. When some of them approached me to be the candidate for the chief minister post, I informed them that if all the parties agreed to my candidature only I will contest. They accepted me and I was elected with 133,000 votes in the province. Unlike the parliamentarian said I was not given the post by a party in the alliance,” he said.
Mr Wigneswaran said that it was Mr Sumanthiran who made policy pronouncements without consulting the party and accused him and Mr.Sampanthan of wanting to be in the good books of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government, ignoring the Tamils’ demands such as the demilitarisation of the Northern Province.
Responding to Mr Sumanthiran's accusation that he refused to attend a diaspora fundraiser in Canada, Mr Wigneswaran said that he could not take part in fundraising when he could not give an account of the alliance's expenditure.