which resulted in Chelvanayakam being exiled from Parliament for nearly two and half years. Chelvanayakam wrote to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike on 4 November 1973 stating that the election would be peaceful and that the government's supporters could campaign freely. Bandaranaike did not respond. In the meantime, Tamil political opinion started shifting as a result of the government's perceived apathy and the Prime Minister's apparent inability to recognise the consequences of the growing ethnic tension in the country. At its 12th annual convention in Mallakam in September 1973 ITAK passed a resolution seeking self-determination for Tamils. Tamils now established their claim to be a sovereign nation-state and Chelvanayakam was considered the father of the nation. For his part Chelvanayakam ingrained the concept of a "traditional homeland for the Tamil people" in the mindset of the Tamils. Violence between Tamil militant youth and the government also escalated. Tamil United Liberation Front The by-election in Kankesanthurai was eventually held on 6 February 1975 and Chelvanayakam was re-elected with a large majority. At a meeting in Jaffna in 1975 the TUF's action committee resolved to change the TUF's name to Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). Chelvanayakam, G. G. Ponnambalam and S. Thondaman would be the TULF's co-leaders. The TULF held its first national convention in May 1976 in Vaddukoddai and on 14 May 1976, under Chelvanayakam's chairmanship, passed the Vaddukoddai Resolution calling for the "restoration and reconstitution of the free, sovereign, secular, socialist state of Tamil Eelam". On 19 November 1976, in one of his last speeches in the NSA, Chelvanayakam acknowledged that his quest to obtain the "lost rights of the Tamil speaking people" through federalism had failed. "We have abandoned the demand for a federal constitution" he stated, "We know that the Sinhalese people will one day grant our demand and that we will be able to establish a state separate from the rest of the island." On 21 May 1976 several Tamil politicians (A. Amirthalingam, V. N. Navaratnam, K. P. Ratnam, M. Sivasithamparam and K. Thurairatnam) were delivering leaflets when they were all arrested on government orders. Sivasithamparam was released but the others were taken to Colombo and tried for sedition. All the defendants were acquitted on 10 February 1977 after a high-profile trial-at-bar case in which around 70 prominent Tamil lawyers, including Chelvanayakam and G. G. Ponnambalam, acted for the defence. The last years of Chelvanayakam were personally difficult.