Sri Lankan politician
Canagasabapathy Visuvalingam Vigneswaran ,
PC (
Tamil : கனகசபாபதி விசுவலிங்கம் விக்னேஸ்வரன் , romanized: Kaṉakacapāpati Vicuvaliṅkam Vikṉēsvaraṉ ;
Sinhala : කනකසභාපති විශ්වලිංගම් විග්නේෂ්වරන් ; born 23 October 1939) is a
Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, judge, politician and
Member of Parliament .
[1] After
practising law for more than 15 years, Vigneswaran was a member of the
judiciary for 25 years. He was a
magistrate and a judge of the
District Court ,
High Court ,
Court of Appeal and
Supreme Court . He was
Chief Minister of the
Northern Province from October 2013 to October 2018. He was elected to the
Parliament of Sri Lanka in August 2020. Vigneswaran is leader of the
Tamil People's Alliance and the
Tamil People's National Alliance .
Early life and family
Vigneswaran was born on 23 October 1939 in
Hulftsdorp ,
Colombo , the capital of
Ceylon .
[1]
[2] His parents were born in
Manipay in northern Ceylon and he had two sisters.
[2]
[3] His father Canagasabapathy was a public official who worked in several parts of the country.
[2]
[3] Vigneswaran's grandfather was a cousin of statesmen
P. Ramanathan and
P. Arunachalam .
[2]
Vigneswaran's father's work meant that the family moved often. Vigneswaran spent the first nine years of his life in
Kurunegala and studied at Christchurch College.
[2] The family then moved to
Anuradhapura where Vigneswaran attended Holy Family Convent.
[2]
[3] Vigneswaran joined
Royal College, Colombo aged 11.
[2]
[4]
[5] After school Vigneswaran obtained
B.A. degree from the
University of London and
LL.B. degree from the
University of Ceylon .
[2]
[3] He then joined
Ceylon Law College , qualifying as a
proctor and an
advocate .
[2]
[3] He was president of the Law Students’ Union at the college in 1962.
[2]
[3]
One of Vigneswaran's sons is married to the daughter of government minister
Vasudeva Nanayakkara .
[6]
[7] His other son is married to the niece of former MP Keseralal Gunasekera.
[2]
Vigneswaran is also a follower of the controversial
guru
Swami Premananda whom he has compared to
Jesus and has requested that
Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi release three jailed followers of Premananda.
[8]
[9]
Career
Law
Vigneswaran
practised of law for more than fifteen years.
[3]
[10]
[11] He is a
President's Counsel .
[12]
[13] He joined the
Judicial Service on 7 May 1979.
[5]
[14] He served as a
magistrate and
District Judge in
Batticaloa ,
Chavakachcheri and
Mallakam .
[5]
[14] He became District Judge for
Colombo in January 1987.
[5]
[14] He was appointed to the
High Court in 1988, serving in
Northern Province ,
Eastern ,
North Central ,
Uva and
Western
provinces .
[5] He was appointed to the
Court of Appeal in 1995.
[5]
[10]
Vigneswaran was appointed to the
Supreme Court in March 2001.
[15] He retired in October 2004.
[16]
Politics
Vigneswaran meets
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
Samantha Power in November 2015
In April 2013 it was reported that Vigneswaran had been chosen by the
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to be its
chief ministerial candidate in the upcoming
election to
Northern Provincial Council (NPC).
[17]
[18] The reports were denied by the TNA.
[7] However, in July 2013, after nominations were called for the provincial council election, the TNA announced that Vigneswaran would be its chief ministerial candidate in the Northern Province.
[19]
[20]
[21] He contested the provincial council election as one of the TNA's candidates in
Jaffna District and was elected to the NPC.
[22]
[23] Vigneswaran received his chief ministerial appointment letter from
Governor
G. A. Chandrasiri on 1 October 2013.
[24]
[25]
[26] He took his oath as chief minister and provincial councillor in front of
President
Mahinda Rajapaksa at the
Presidential Secretariat on 7 October 2013.
[27]
[28]
[29]
Vigneswaran's relationship with the TNA leadership deteriorated thereafter.
[30]
[31] In December 2015 he became leader of the newly formed
Tamil People's Council (TPC), a forum to highlight issues affecting Sri Lankan Tamils.
[32]
[33] The TPC, which included civil society groups, religious leaders and academics as well as political parties, claimed that it wasn't political or an alternative to the TNA.
[34]
[35] On 24 October 2018, the day after he ceased being chief minister, Vigneswaran announced that he had formed a new political alliance, the
Tamil People's Alliance (TPA, Thamizh Makkal Kootani).
[36]
[37]
In February 2020 the TPA joined with three other political parties to form the
Tamil People's National Alliance (TPNA, Thamizh Makkal Tesiya Kootani)
electoral alliance to contest the
parliamentary election .
[38]
[39] Vigneswaran became the alliance's leader.
[40]
[41] He contested the 2020 parliamentary election as one of the TPNA's candidates in
Jaffna District and was elected to the
Parliament .
[42]
[43]
[44]
Electoral history
References
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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