Ariyanethiran was trustee of Kokkatticholai Sivan Temple and editor of
Thamil Alai (Tamil Wave), a
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam newspaper. He was selected by the LTTE as one of the
Tamil National Alliance's (TNA) candidates in the
Batticaloa District at the
2004 parliamentary election but failed to get elected after placing fifth amongst the TNA candidates. However, Ariyanethiran entered
Parliament in May 2004 following the resignation of
Kingsley Rasanayagam. It has been alleged that the LTTE abducted and forced Rasanayagam to resign to make way for Ariyanethiran. Ariyanethiran was re-elected at the
2010 parliamentary election. He failed to get re-elected at the
2015 parliamentary election. In 2024, Ariyanethiran was nominated by a number of Tamil political parties as their common candidate of the
2024 presidential elections. The
Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi notably did not endorse Ariyanethiran. Although Ariyanethiran only won 1.7% of the national vote, his performance was considerably stronger in the Tamil-majority districts of the
North and
East. In the
Jaffna district, Ariyanethiran became the 2nd most-voted candidate, beating the likes of president
Ranil Wickremesinghe and NPP candidate
Anura Kumara Dissanayake. In
Vanni, he was the 3rd most-voted. ==Electoral history==