[1] Born on 18 August 1975 in the village of Pethalai, near Kalkuda in the Batticaloa District, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan was the second of seven children of Arumugam Sivaneshathurai and Sinnavan Kamala.
[2] However a number of cadres remained loyal to Prabhakaran, and they defeated Karuna's faction in a decisive battle near on the banks of the Verugal Aru in April 2004.
The Sri Lankan military fully achieved this objective in July 2007, with the aid of the TMVP, which overran a number of Tamil Tiger camps in the process.
He formed a political party called the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) in 2004, making Chandrakanthan its deputy leader.
Karuna subsequently left the country for the United Kingdom, where he was later arrested for violating immigration procedures and sentenced to jail in January 2008.
[15] While admitting the TMVP still had armed cadres, he stated they were for their protection from the Tamil Tigers, who were yet to be disarmed, and who Chandrakanthan said were "waiting for the opportune time to strike at us and physically liquidate us from the face of this earth.
[20] Following his appointment as Chief Minister, Chandrakanthan, a Hindu, visited Kandy on 18 May to get the blessings of Sri Lanka's most venerable Buddhist Monks, the Mahanayake Thera's of the Asgiriya and Malwatte chapters.
[21] Chandrakanthan also visited Sri Lanka's most sacred Buddhist site, the Temple of the Tooth, which the Tamil Tigers bombed in 1998, and apologized for the harm that was done in the attack.
The tension increased between Tamil and Muslim ethnic communities in Kaanththaankudi area of eastern Batticaloa district after killing of 2 TMVP members on 22 May 2008.
[24][25] Many Sri Lankan Tamils feel that Chandrakanthan's political career had come to an end, after he lost his Chief Ministership of the Eastern Province.