Lankan North Council attempt to congratulate Jaya aborted

Sri Lanka's Tamil-controlled Northern Provincial Council's attempt to adopt a motion to congratulate J Jayalalithaa for becoming the Tamil Nadu chief minister has been aborted.

Northern Province Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran yesterday presented the motion, which was opposed by the opposition United People's Freedom Alliance councillor V Jayathilake.

The councillor cited last week's floods disaster in Sri Lanka and said it was inappropriate for the NPC to adopt congratulatory motions for Indian politicians when the country had faced a natural disaster.

Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Vice Chairman Anton Jeganathan of Wigneswaran's own Tamil National Alliance backed Jayathilake, who is a Sinhalese.

Jeganathan said the NPC was "wrong to debate" Jayalalithaa when foreign countries have come forward to help flood victims and the council must first debate the floods situation, he argued.

"The Chief Minister was acting outside the agenda for the day and his own members supported me when I said the council needed to consider the floods disaster," Jayathilake said.

As other TNA councillors also opposed the motion, the move was aborted.