A powerful former aide of the slain LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran today resigned from President Maithripala Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to join the oldest Tamil democratic party, TULF, amid reports that he was overlooked by the party for a ticket in elections.
Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan aka Karuna joined Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF).
"I have left the SLFP to join TULF. TULF is the non extremist democratic party," Muralitharan told reporters today.
The TULF in the 80s suffered badly from the LTTE militancy. Most of its frontline leaders were eliminated by the LTTE.
Karuna was the all powerful LTTE militant leader and the man who commanded the eastern province when the LTTE ran its parallel administration.
In 2004 he broke ranks with the LTTE to form his own group which later became a political party.
He was appointed to parliament by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2010 and was appointed a deputy minister in the government.
Muaralitharan slammed the current main Tamil political party as one which does not represent the Tamils.
The TULF leader V Anandasangaree a bitter critic of the LTTE remains a critic of the TNA too.
Muralitharan was overlooked for the party ticket by the Rajapaksa successor the current President as the leader of the SLFP.
He was not selected to run in the eastern province by Sirisena.
