V. Karalasingham

Vaithianathan Karalasingham (; July 1921 – 8 September 1983) was a Ceylon Tamil lawyer, writer, politician and one of the leading members of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party.

Early life and family Karalasingham was born in July 1921. His father Vaithianathan was a civil servant who worked in several parts of the country. As a result, Karalasingham was educated at schools in Kalutara, Pannipitiya and Colombo, including Ananda College.

Karalasingham had a daughter (Nina) and a son (Chakravarthy). The LSSP played a major role in a wave of strikes in 1939/40 and consequently it was proscribed in 1940 and its leaders Colvin R. de Silva, Philip Gunawardena, N. M. Perera and Edmund Samarakkody arrested in June 1940. Leslie Goonewardene evaded arrest and went into hiding.

Whilst Ceylon's main political parties, the United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) supported the Sinhala Only Act, the leftists, led by the LSSP, opposed the act. LSSP members who opposed the move (Meryl Fernando, Karalasingham, Samarakkody, Bala Tampoe etc.) left the LSSP and formed the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary) (LSSP(R)) with Samarakkody as its secretary. Fernando and Samarakkody's action in December 1964 proved controversial within the LSSP(R) as they had in effect supported the capitalist UNP which would go on to win the 1965 parliamentary election.

Karalasingham stood as the LSSP candidate in Uduvil at the 1970 parliamentary election but on was defeated by sitting MP V. Dharmalingam. He served on the editorial board of State in the 1970s and was a director of the state-owned Air Ceylon between 1970 and 1975 when the LSSP was in a coalition government with the SLFP. Enter History (1970)

Electoral history + Electoral history of V. KaralasinghamElectionConstituencyPartyVotesResult 1960 March parliamentary Kankesanthurai LSSP Not elected 1965 parliamentary Kankesanthurai LSSP(R) Not elected 1970 parliamentary Uduvil LSSP Not elected