[By Janaka Alahapperuma]

The newly elected Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Vigneswaran was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Northern Province before President Mahinda Rajapaksa at 9.30 am this morning (07 October) at Temple Trees. He took oaths as a member of the northern provincial council and later as the chief minister.

Former Supreme Court judge Wigneswaran has been selected as the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Chief Minister of the Northern Province following the landslide victory at the recently held Provincial Council Elections for the Province.  As the TNA chief candidate at the election, Vigneswaran obtained the highest preferential votes in the Jaffna District with a total of 132,255 votes.

Religious leaders headed by Maha Sangha, Prime Minister D.M Jayarathne, Ministers, Maithripala Sirisena, Dallas Alahapperuma, Douglas Devananda, Rauf Hakeem, DEW Gunasekara, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Governor of Northern Province G.A. Chandrasiri, TNA leader R. Sampanthan, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, several parliamentarians, family members of the newly appointed Chief Minister Vigneswaran and many dignitaries were present at the function.

Earlier Northern Province Governor Major General (retired) G.A. Chandrasiri appointed Vigneswaran to the Chief Minister post of the Province on October 01 and Mr. Vigneshwaran accepted his appointment letter from the Governor.

Pictures are seen here Northern Province Chief Minister Vigneshwaran receiving his appointment letter from President Mahinda Rajapaksa and being greeted by Ministers and other dignitaries at the oaths ceremony at Temple Trees.

Pix by: Sudath Silva