Thiagarajah stood as the
All Ceylon Tamil Congress's candidate in
Vaddukoddai at the
1970 parliamentary election. He won the election and entered
Parliament. He later defected to the governing
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and voted for the new
republican constitution. He was labelled a traitor by
Tamil militants and
Tamil nationalists. He was the target of an assassination attempt at his
Colombo home in 1972.
Assassination The
United National Party chose Thiagarajah to be its lead candidate in
Jaffna District at the 1981 District Development Council election. Tamil militant groups had warned candidates not to contest for the UNP. He was shot by the militant
People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) on 24 May 1981 as he was addressing an election meeting in
Moolai. He died the next day in hospital. ==References==