Selvam Adaikalanathan

Adaikalanathan was born 10 June 1962.^[1] He hails from Mannar in northern Sri Lanka.^[3] At the age of 15 he joined the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), a Tamil militant group fighting for an independent state of Tamil Eelam in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.^[3] He took on the nom de guerre Selvam'. Adaikalanathan took on the leadership/presidency of TELO following the killing of Sri Sabaratnam by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on 5 May 1986.^[3]

Adaikalanathan contested the 1989 parliamentary election as a ENDLF/EPRLF/TELO/TULF electoral alliance candidate in Vanni District but failed to get elected after coming 3rd amongst the alliance candidates.^[4][5] He contested the 2000 parliamentary election as one of the TELO's candidates in Vanni District and was elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka.^[6]

On 20 October 2001 the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, TELO and Tamil United Liberation Front formed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).^[7][8] Adaikalanathan contested the 2001 parliamentary election as one of the TNA's candidates in Vanni District and was re-elected to Parliament.^[9] He was re-elected at the 2004, 2010 and 2015 parliamentary elections.^{[10][11][12][13][14]} He was elected Deputy chairman of committees of the Parliament of Sri Lanka when the new parliament met on 1 September 2015.^[15][16]

Adaikalanathan was re-elected at the 2020 parliamentary election.^[17][18][19]