Political Crisis in the Northern Provincial Council

In the year 2016, sixteen NPC members have petitioned the Chief Minister for action against all the four members of his Board of Ministers, who alleged to have involved in corruption and maladministration in the Northern Province under his charge.Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran promptly appointed a three man commission comprised of distinguished retired judges and an Administrative service officer to investigate the charges. The commission found two of the Ministers, P. Ayngaranesan (Agriculture), and T. Kurukularaja (Education), guilty, and two others, P. Sathiyalingam (Health), and B. Deniswaran (Fisheries), not guilty.  But on Wednesday (14), while the NPC took the commission report for debate, CM MC.V.Wigneswaran announced that he is asking the two indicted ministers to resign and the other two to “take leave” as the inquiry against them is pending. In his statement, Wigneswaran also clearly indicated that the whole issue of corruption and maladministration was raised to tarnish the image of his governance and charged that it was a clandestine move of some person to oust him from the Chief Minister’s post.  This ruling has infuriated the ITAK which promptly went to Governor Reginald Cooray with a petition to move a no-confidence motion against the Chief Minister. The ITAK claims the support of 21 of the 38 NPC members. And the non-ITAK parties are claiming the support of 15. The latter have also resolved to take the fight to the streets. Governor Cooray has asked the Chief Minister to prove his majority in the NPC within seven days.

Meanwhile, some neutral parties led by PLOTE leader Siddharthan wanted to defuse the crisis through a compromise formula. TNA leader Sampanthan agreed to the formula, according to which the Chief Minister will not ask the two discharged ministers to go on leave pending a fresh inquiry, and in return, the ITAK will withdraw the No Trust motion.  But the Chief Minister has rejected the compromise proposal and dared the ITAK to go ahead with its No Trust. Wigneswaran feels that if he is thrown out, he will emerge as “the” leader of the Tamils and a mighty fighter against corruption, and sweep the next provincial council elections which will be held in 15 months time.

ITAK veteran Mr. Sampanthan said to have spoken to Mr. Wigneswaran over the phone and the leaders tried reconciling their differences,a source in the Northern Provincial Council revealed it to the press.Uncertainty continued in SriLanka’s Northern Provincial Council.Will Chief Minister survive? Wait and see.