The National People’s Power (NPP) has released a series of Tamil-language campaign songs for the upcoming local government elections, embracing rhetoric and imagery closely associated with Tamil nationalism and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The campaign, aimed at boosting electoral performance in the Tamil North-East, has raised questions over the sincerity of the party’s political stance.
One of the songs, circulated by NPP’s Jaffna Member of Parliament Ilankumaran on Facebook, pledges the construction of a bronze statue in Valvettithurai to honour LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The lyrics the song are as below:
O land that yearned for valour,
O soil where Tamil pride has flourished,
The land where History was born
And gave the nation its noble leader (Prabhakaran)—
In the name of Veluppillai Parvathy Ammal,
A new harbour shall rise,
And it shall echo our history for a hundred years.
The principles of the national peoples power and those of the Tamil national leader are one and the same.
A bronze statue of the Tamil national leader
Shall stand in the land of his birth.
We shall build a memorial hall,
And install the bronze effigy,
And move the first resolution in the city’s urban council.
Across all regions,
The Maveerar thuyilumillam shall be rebuilt and preserved—
A duty to be borne by the councils.No matter how many years may pass,
The identity of the Tamil people shall endure;
And the national party shall uphold it.
The song also promises to rename Nallur’s Sankiliyan Park as ‘Kittu Park’ - a reference to senior LTTE commander Sathasivam Krishnakumar - and to build a memorial hall and landing pad dedicated to Prabhakaran’s parents, Velupillai and Parvathyamma.
Another song, reportedly created for the Karaithuraipattu Pradeshiya Sabha in Mullaitivu, compares the left-wing ideology of the NPP with that of Prabhakaran, vowing that each Pradeshiya Sabha will support the reconstruction and upkeep of LTTE cemeteries.
The song's lyrics state:
The ideology of the Tamil national leader is communism.
The ideology of the National People's Party is also communism.
Let us unite under one shared vision.
A total of 28 such songs have been produced and shared across NPP-affiliated social media platforms, including official district-level pages.
Critics have lambasted the NPP, traditionally a southern-based leftist party with no historical alignment to Tamil nationalism, for what they describe as opportunistic mimicry.
“These songs reveal the extent to which Tamil nationalist sentiments have taken root,” noted one activist in Jaffna. “Southern parties cannot remain electorally relevant in the North-East without adopting this language.”
Indeed, despite its vocal opposition in the past to Tamil self-determination and its alignment with Sinhala-Buddhist majoritarian narratives, the NPP now appears to be leveraging the imagery of LTTE leaders and invoking the memory of the Tamil armed struggle to win support. Photographs of Prabhakaran’s former residence, footage of Maaveerar Naal commemorations, and emotionally charged references to the LTTE’s “martyrs” feature prominently in the music videos.
The strategy has drawn criticism from Tamils who accuse the NPP of hypocrisy. “This is a party that has remained silent on the continued occupation of Tamil lands and the denial of justice for genocide,” said one campaigner. “Now they’re trying to use our martyrs and our history as campaign material?”
Observers have noted that the NPP’s sudden turn to Tamil nationalist rhetoric is not isolated, but part of a broader political pattern in which southern parties attempt to rebrand themselves during elections in the North-East. However, critics warn that such performative gestures, have been made without concrete commitments to accountability, demilitarisation, or self-determination.