V. Ponnambalam

Vallipuram Ponnambalam (; 18 December 1930 – 5 March 1994; commonly known as VP) was a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and teacher. He was a prominent leader of the left-wing in northern Sri Lanka. He served as the secretary of the Jaffna District Committee of the Communist Party of Ceylon.

Early life and family Sinnappu Vallipuram Ponnambalam was born on 18 December 1930. He was son of Vallipuram and Ponnammah from Alaveddy in northern Ceylon.

Political career On his return to Ceylon from India in 1950, Ponnambalam joined the Communist Party. He stood as the Communist Party candidate in the Uduvil Electoral District in the March 1960 parliamentary election. He finished in third place, with 3,541 votes (17.27%). The winning candidate, V. Dharmalingam, was a close friend of V. Ponnambalam. He was elected district secretary for the Communist Party in 1963. In his campaign he accused the Federal Party of resisting progressive measures, such as school, bus service and petroleum distribution nationalisation as well as the enactment of the Paddy Lands Act. He finished in second place with 8,164 votes (26.75%).

Build-up of tension In the process of preparing the new 1972 Constitution, the Jaffna District Committee of the Communist Party argued that the 1957 Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact be incorporated in the new Constitution. They requested the Communist Party leader Pieter Keuneman to facilitate a meeting with the Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the Minister of Constitutional Affairs Colvin R. de Silva. Ponnabalam headed the Jaffna District Communist Party delegation at the meeting. He argued that with the implementation of the 1957 pact the emergence of a large-scale Tamil insurgency could be avoided. According to Ponnabalam's account Bandaranaike was initially sympathetic to the proposal but was swayed by de Silva to reject it.

1975 by-election On 6 February 1975 a bye-election was held for the Kankesanthurai seat (Chelvanayakam had resigned from the seat two years before). Again Chelvanayakam and Ponnambalam confronted each other. Ponnambalam was the candidate of the governing United Front coalition. He lost to Chelvanayakam, who increased his victory margin. Chelvanayakam obtained 25,927 votes and V. Ponnambalam obtained 9,457 votes. With the Red Tamil Movement Ponnambalam sought to align with TULF and its leader A. Amirthalingam and move it towards socialist positions. Amirthalingam's candidature in the Kankesanthurai seat at the 1977 parliamentary election was proposed by Ponnambalam.

Later years However Ponnabalam's new party failed to make any significant impact. Ponnambalam withdrew from political life and in 1978 shifted his residence to Lusaka, Zambia where he taught at the Co-operative College. He returned to Sri Lanka in the early 1980s, and was active in the Tamil nationalist camp.

Ponnambalam migrated to Canada in 1985. He died on 5 March 1994 in Toronto.