Democratic Tamil National Alliance
The Democratic Tamil National Alliance, previously known as the Tamil Democratic National Alliance, is a political alliance in Sri Lanka that represents the country's Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic minority. The alliance is recognised by the Election Commission of Sri Lanka as registered political party with the brass lamp as its symbol.
History
The Tamil Democratic National Alliance was formed in 2008 by the Democratic People's Liberation Front, the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front and the Tamil United Liberation Front to contest the 2008 Eastern Provincial Council elections. The TDNA secured 1.3% of the votes in the election, winning a single seat, R. Thurairatnam from the Batticaloa District.Following the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009, the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora began exerting pressure on Sri Lankan Tamil political parties to unite under a common front, thus the DPLF/PLOTE and the TULF joined the Tamil National Alliance, the largest political group representing Sri Lankan Tamils at the time. The EPRLF led by T. Sritharan was not allowed to join the TNA due to opposition from the EPRLF led by Suresh Premachandran. The TDNA remained dormant thereafter.
In December 2022 the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, the main constituent party of the TNA, announced that it would contest the 2023 Sri Lankan local elections on its own. In response, the two remaining members of the TNA, the DPLF/PLOTE and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, resurrected the TDNA, renaming it as the Democratic Tamil National Alliance. The alliance was later joined by the Crusaders for Democracy, the EPRLF and the Tamil National Party. The DTNA is downplaying the "democratic" part of its name in a bid to suggest that it is the "real" TNA.