Sri Lankan Tamil leaders wish Stalin on victory
The Hindu
‘He has drawn the attention of Tamils world over’
As the DMK’s victory in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections became clear on Sunday, Sri Lanka’s Tamil leaders and parliamentarians took to Twitter to wish party president and chief ministerial candidate M.K. Stalin. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), representing the Tamils in Sri Lanka’s north and east, said: “Congratulations to @arivalayam #DMK and @mkstalin on a decisive win in the #Tamil_Nadu legislative assembly polls,” in a tweet attributed to spokesman and Jaffna parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran. Issuing a statement, Mano Ganesan, Opposition legislator and Leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA), which represents Malaiyaha Tamils in the island’s hill country and capital Colombo, said Mr. Stalin, in leading the DMK alliance to a big win has drawn the attention of Tamils world over. Wishing Mr. Stalin as he prepares to take on the responsibility of Chief Minister of “our fatherland Tamil Nadu”, Mr. Ganesan said: “Sri Lankan Tamils are not voters in Tamil Nadu to interfere with the results. Accepting the democratic verdict of our brothers and sisters, we must think about how to engage [with the new leadership] in ways that would help us,” Mr. Ganesan said.The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.