Pakkiyaselvam Ariyanethiran is a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

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Political career

Ariyanethiran was trustee of Kokkatticholai Sivan Temple and editor of Thamil Alai (Tamil wave), a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a separatist militant organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Vellupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist and nationalist campaign to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil...

 newspaper. He was selected by the Tamil Tigers as one of the Tamil National Alliance

Tamil National Alliance

The Tamil National Alliance is a powerful minority Sri Lankan Tamil political alliance in Sri Lanka. It was formed as an amalgamation of moderate Tamil parties as well as number of former rebel groups...

's candidates in Batticaloa District

Batticaloa Electoral District

Batticaloa Electoral District is one of the 22 multi-member electoral districts of Sri Lanka created by the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka. The district is conterminous with the administrative district of Batticaloa in the Eastern province...

 at the 2004 parliamentary election

Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2004

Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 2 April 2004. The ruling United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was defeated, winning only eighty two seats in the 225-member Sri Lankan parliament. The opposition United People's Freedom Alliance won 105 seats...

 but failed to get elected after coming fifth amongst the TNA candidates. However, Ariyanethiran entered Parliament in May 2004 following the resignation of Kingsley Rasanayagam

Kingsley Rasanayagam

Kingsley Rasanayagam was a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former Member of Parliament. In 2004 Rasanayagam was selected by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a Tamil National Alliance parliamentary candidate...

. It has been alleged that the Tamil Tigers abducted and forced Rasanayagam to resign to make way for Ariyanethiran. Ariyanethiran was re-elected at the 2010 parliamentary election

Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2010

The 2010 Sri Lankan parliamentary election was held on April 8 and April 20, 2010, to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka's 14th Parliament. 14,088,500 Sri Lankans were eligible to vote in the election at 11,102 polling stations...

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