By Uditha Jayasinghe
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s permission would be necessary for representatives of MP Vinyagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman’s new political party to gain entrance to the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC).

APRC Chairman Prof. Tissa Vitarana told The Bottom Line yesterday that any representative from the new party would have to wait until he gets clearance from the President before attending meetings. However, the Tamil People’s Liberation Front or Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Koddani (TMVK) would have to be registered first and legally identified as a political party.

Interestingly, the earlier representative nominated by Muralitharan was the President’s Eastern Affairs Coordinator Inaiyana Bharathi who has been named as the General Secretary of the TMVK. The formation of the new party was followed by differences of opinion between Muralitharan and Eastern Province Chief Minister Chandrakanthan, also known as Pillaiyan.

The Chief Minister’s party has two representatives in the APRC.
Prof. Vitarana has also postponed meeting with UNP delegate K.N. Choksy till January. Due to time constraints a meeting would be highly unlikely this year and he hoped to take the first possible opportunity in the New Year to discuss proposals. Meanwhile, the weekly APRC meetings will continue from next week onwards following a short respite for the festive season.

“Currently I am compiling documents and arranging for the discussions with the UNP delegate. This is a time consuming venture as new material is added with every meeting. The APRC will meet next week as well, but I have as yet not decided on a specific date for the meeting with Mr. Choksy,” he said adding that it will probably be pushed to 2009.