D. Siddarthan

Dharmalingam Siddarthan (Tamil: தர்மலிங்கம் சித்தார்த்தன்) is a Sri Lankan Tamil militant turned politician and Member of Parliament.[1] He is the current leader of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), a member of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).[2][3]

Hon.

D. Siddarthan

MP
Member of the Sri Lankan Parliament
for Jaffna District
Assumed office
2015
Member of the Sri Lankan Parliament
for Vanni District
In office
2001–2004
In office
1994–2000
Member of the Northern Provincial Council for Jaffna District
In office
2013–2015
Succeeded byKanapathippillai Tharumalingam
Personal details
NationalitySri Lankan
Political partyPeople's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam
Other political
affiliations		Tamil National Alliance
EthnicitySri Lankan Tamil

Early life

Siddarthan is the son of V. Dharmalingam, Member of Parliament for Uduvil.[4][5][6] Siddarthan became involved in Tamil nationalist politics in the 1960s but by the 1970s he had become involved in with militant groups.[7] He was one of the founding members of the Tamil New Tigers and in 1977 founded the London branch of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).[7][8] In 1980 LTTE chairman Uma Maheswaran split from the LTTE and founded the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE).[7] Siddarthan joined PLOTE.[7][9] In 1982 Siddarthan, with the assistance of Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students, went to Syria to receive military training from Palestinian militant groups.[9] Siddarthan took over leadership of the PLOTE following the assassination of Uma Maheswaran in 1989.[10]

Career

Siddarthan was one of the Democratic People's Liberation Front's (DPLF) (the political wing of PLOTE) candidates in Jaffna District at the 1989 parliamentary election but the DPLF failed to win any seats in Parliament.[11][12] He was one of the DPLF's candidates for Vanni District at the 1994 parliamentary election. He was elected and entered Parliament.[13] He was not re-elected at the 2000 parliamentary election. He was however re-elected at the 2001 parliamentary election.[14] He failed to get re-elected at the 2004 parliamentary election after the DPLF failed to win any seats in Parliament.[15][16] He contested the 2010 parliamentary election in Vanni District but again the DPLF failed to win any seats in Parliament.[17]

Following the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora started exerting pressure on Sri Lankan Tamil political parties to unite and so PLOTE joined the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest political group representing Sri Lankan Tamils.[18] Siddarthan contested the 2013 provincial council election as one of the TNA's candidates in Jaffna District and was elected to the Northern Provincial Council.[19][20] After the election he was appointed to assist the Chief Minister on vocational training, entrepreneurial development, small and medium enterprises.[21] He took his oath as provincial councillor in front of PLOTE Secretary and All Island Justice Peace Subramanian Sathananthan at Chunnakam on 14 October 2013.[22][23]

Siddarthan was one of the TNA's candidates in Jaffna District at the 2015 parliamentary election. He was elected and re-entered Parliament.[24][25][26][27][28]

Electoral history
Electoral history of D. Siddarthan
Election Constituency Party Votes Result
1989 parliamentary[12]Jaffna DistrictDPLF1,731Not elected
1994 parliamentary[13]Vanni DistrictDPLF6,376Elected
2001 parliamentary[14]Vanni DistrictDPLF4,468Elected
2004 parliamentary[15]Vanni DistrictDPLF3,954Not elected
2010 parliamentaryVanni DistrictDPLFNot elected
2013 provincial[20]Jaffna DistrictTNA39,715Elected
2015 parliamentary[29]Jaffna DistrictTNA53,740Elected
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References
  1. "Directory of Members: Dharmalingam Sithadthan". Parliament of Sri Lanka.
  2. Pathirana, Saroj (14 November 2010). "Sri Lanka's 'ignored' non-Tamil Tiger militant groups". BBC News.
  3. "TNA & Sinhala sensitivities". Ceylon Today. 29 April 2015.
  4. Jeyaraj, D. B. S. (5 October 2013). "TNA'S Tussle Over Provincial Ministry Posts in North". The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka).
  5. Sri Kantha, Sachi (24 October 2010). "Remembering Visvanather Dharmalingam". Ilankai Tamil Sangam.
  6. Rajasingham, K. T. "Chapter 33: India shows its hand". Sri Lanka: The Untold Story.
  7. "Right thinking people hate war - Siddarthan". Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka). 18 July 2004. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  8. "Prabhakaran asked cadres to shoot him if he swayed away from his cause". Deccan Herald. Press Trust of India. 18 May 2009.
  9. Meadows, Mark Stephen (2010). Tea Time with Terrorists (PDF). Soft Skull Press. ISBN 978-1-59376-275-9.
  10. Jeyaraj, D. B. S. (11 September 1999). "Who killed Manickathasan?". Frontline. 16 (19).
  11. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1989" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  12. de Silva, W. P. P.; Ferdinando, T. C. L. 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka (PDF). Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited. p. 182. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 June 2015.
  13. "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1994" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2010.
  14. "General Election 2001 Preferences" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2010.
  15. "Parliamentary General Election 2004 Final District Results - Vanni District". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  16. "General Election 2004 Preferences" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka.
  17. "Parliamentary General Election - 2010 Vanni District". Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 14 April 2010. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  18. Jeyaraj, D. B. S. (18 May 2013). "Tamil National Alliance Faces Acute Political Crisis". The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka).
  19. "PART I : SECTION (I) ó GENERAL Government Notifications PROVINCIAL COUNCILS ELECTIONS ACT, No. 2 OF 1988 Northern Province Provincial Council" (PDF). The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Extraordinary. 1829/33. 25 September 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2013.
  20. "PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS 2013 ñ Results and preferential votes: Northern Province". The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka). 26 September 2013. Archived from the original on 16 January 2014.
  21. "Division of Ministries of the Northern Provincial Council & Subjects for Councillors" (PDF). TamilNet. 11 October 2013.
  22. Kapilnath, Navaratnam (14 October 2013). "Sivajilingam, Sidharthan sworn in separately". The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka).
  23. "Two Elected Councilors From PLOTE Took Oaths In Chunnakam". Asian Tribune. 14 October 2013.
  24. "PART I : SECTION (I) — GENERAL Government Notifications PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS ACT, No. 1 OF 1981" (PDF). The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Extraordinary. 1928/03. 19 August 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015.
  25. "Ranil tops with over 500,000 votes in Colombo". The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka). 19 August 2015.
  26. "Preferential Votes". Daily News (Sri Lanka). 19 August 2015. Archived from the original on 20 August 2015.
  27. "PM Ranil receives highest Preferential votes with 500,566". hirunews.lk. 18 August 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  28. "Preferential votes- General Election 2015". adaderana.lk. 18 August 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  29. Jayakody, Pradeep (28 August 2015). "The Comparison of Preferential Votes in 2015 & 2010". The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka).
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