Batticaloa District TNA parliamentarian Pakkiyaselvam Ariyenthiran hinted that it was still not too late for the UNP to withdraw from contesting the Jaffna Municipality and Vavuniya Urban Council if it wanted to include the TNA coalition in its proposed grand Opposition Alliance. "The Ilangai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), the main partner in the TNA would then extend its fullest support to the UNP in a future election," the MP said.

Recalling the past, the MP said that all parties that ruled the country in the past just used the Tamil parties to fulfil their agendas and discarded them thereafter. While in power they never cared for the aspirations of the Tamils, he charged.

He said that there are two weeks more for the elections to the Jaffna MC and the Vavuniya UC and the UNP can make a public announcement that they would withdraw in support of the ITAK. Failure to show such goodwill would make it meaningless to extend support to the proposed grand Opposition Alliance. He said that his party would give its fullest cooperation to any political party that supports a political solution to the ethnic crisis.