Rajitha’s Hopes for Health Minister Dim Further
Patali and Basil’s Talks Hit a Deadlock
Ranil’s Dilemma: To Contest or Not?
Sajith Gains Popularity in Northern Province
Anura Tries to Copy Sajith
Connections between PLOT and JVP Resurface
Ranil Invites Modi as Pre-Election Showpiece
Confuse theory
Currently, there is widespread discussion in the political sphere about postponing the presidential election. The focus is on the government’s efforts to extend the terms of the President and Parliament by two years without holding elections. Last week, when the government was continually introducing various topics, we highlighted this issue, suggesting that, according to the “confusion theory,” the government aims to disorient the public with such topics. After we exposed this strategy, many discussed it in press conferences.
Initially, we believed that the government was using these topics to confuse political parties, including the opposition and Pohottuwa. However, new information indicates that the President is also using these tactics to confuse his allies. Those familiar with the President’s behaviour assert that he alone is privy to his decisions, leaving those around him in the dark. Consequently, not only former UNP ministers and officials but also some members of Pohottuwa may face unfortunate consequences due to the President’s unpredictable actions.
A prime example of this confusion is Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe’s stance on Samagi Jana Balawega (SJB) during the 2019 general election. When SJB split from the UNP and ran independently, many MPs informed Ranil that SJB had strong village-level support while the UNP did not. Ranil dismissed their concerns, confidently predicting that SJB would not secure even 10 lakh votes, citing the historical performance of breakaway groups led by stronger figures like Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake.
However, the election results shocked both Ranil and the UNP MPs. SJB won 54 seats, while the UNP failed to secure any, marking a historic low with just one seat from the national list. This outcome highlighted Ranil’s disconnect from grassroots politics, a misunderstanding seemingly mirrored by the current President. The President’s use of confusion tactics not only targets opposition parties but also his supporters, creating widespread disarray
Shouldn’t I come?
Under this background, we have frequently stated in the ‘Inside Politics’ column that the likelihood of the President contesting the next presidential election is very low. Initially, we asserted this with the belief that the President would consult his ministers, considering the consequences if he decided not to run at the last moment. Today, we aim to disclose a story reportedly stemming from an offhand comment made by the President regarding the upcoming election.
Last week, during a youth conference at the Water’s Edge Hotel, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions. A circulating story suggests that the President gave a controversial response to a question posed by a young attendee about the presidential election. The young man asked, “If you run, you can implement all those plans. But what will happen if you lose?” The President reportedly laughed and replied, “I shouldn’t run if I’m going to lose.” Although this remark was met with laughter, some people recognized the gravity of his statement. This might explain why the media did not release the video clip of this conversation. Nevertheless, the ‘Neth News website’ reported this incident in their political talk of the week, and there has been no clarification from the President’s office.
Additionally, Mr. Udaya Gammanpila stated in a press conference last Friday that the President’s chances of running are slim. He noted that if the President ranks third in the July opinion poll, he will likely abstain from running.
Despite the President’s seemingly lighthearted comment, we believe he was serious, subtly hinting at his intentions for the upcoming election. If he decides to run, all his plans must come to fruition. This includes securing the support of 25 to 30 MPs from SJB, gaining Pohottuwa’s backing without them fielding their own candidate, and obtaining the support of North-East Muslim and Tamil leaders. However, these conditions do not appear to be met as of now.
Will the conditions be fulfilled?
However, it is said that 25 to 30 members of SJB will join the government at this time, only Rajitha Senaratne and two or three people who have already left SJB. However, the party is also waiting for Rajitha to cross to the government at any moment. In addition, the President has no confidence in the final decision of Pohottuwa. We are 200% confident that if Mahinda announces Dhammika Perera as the candidate for Pohottuwa at any moment, Ranil will withdraw from the presidential race at that moment. Because if that happens, the president knows that he has no chance of winning. If it is announced that Pohottuwa will present Dhammika Perera, there is a high possibility that the group of ministers who are already with the President will abandon the President and join Pohottuwa at that moment. That is because they have no chance to compete with the President in the next general election and come to the Parliament. Accordingly, to come back to the parliament, these ministers should compete together with Pohottuwa again.
Accordingly, we have to wait patiently for a few more weeks to see the truth of this prophecy we are making today. Pohotwa has not yet put their political plans into the arena. Basil still has dealt with first only with a few pegs on the political ladder, moving around. In a few days, when Basil starts moving the pawns on the political chain, it will be clear to everyone that the truth of the president’s so-called ‘slip of the tongue’ statement at Water’s Edge Hotel was not for nothing.
Sajith captures the North
Since the first presidential election in Sri Lanka was held in 1982, apart from the presidential election held in 2019, the most decisive factor for winning the presidential election was the North-Eastern Tamil and Muslim vote. In the north, the Dravidian votes were also the highest. In all the presidential elections held since 1982, the Sinhala Buddhist votes in the south were divided, and the victory was decided by the candidate who got the majority of the Tamil votes in the north. This was confirmed in the 2005 presidential election. There, Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa appeared as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party candidate, while Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe appeared as the UNP candidate. According to opinion polls as well as the general political reading of the country, Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe was the candidate who seemed to win at that time. Everyone thought that Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa would be defeated. The reason for this was that the Tamil votes in the north were sure to Ranil at that time.
But at the last moment, the LTTE collectively decided to go on a vote strike, none of the one million votes cast in the north fell for Ranil. Despite the ban, only one person in Vavuniya had voted for Ranil, and LTTE cut off his hand. The final result of the presidential election was that Mahinda, who was at the brink of losing, won by a small amount of 180,000 votes. Ranil was defeated. That is because none of the votes in the north fell into his ballot box.
However, this situation changed only in 2019. That is because Gotabaya Rajapaksa managed to win only with Sinhala Buddhist votes in the south, despite not getting the Tamil votes in the north. Gota achieved that victory by implementing a strong racist wave in the South. Through that, Gota was able to take all the Sinhala Buddhist votes in one hand. In this way, while Gota took Sinhala Buddhist votes in the south, the majority of Tamil votes in the north were cast to Sajith. While Sajith won 83% of the votes from Jaffna, Gota got only 6% of the votes. Anura Kumara got 0.3% of votes. While Sajith got 82% of the votes from Vavuniya, Gota got only 12% of the votes.
Anura could get 0.5% votes from Vavuniya. That’s how the votes in the north were divided in that presidential election. But today, the wave of racism in the south for Gota has been flattened to the ground. It has not been seen that there is a possibility of creating such a racist wave in the South again. Accordingly, the most decisive factor in this year’s presidential election is the Tamil votes in the northeast and the Tamil votes in the plantations.
5 days in Jaffna
This is why President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who understood this, called all-party conferences, discussed with the Tamil National Alliance, and traveled to the North almost from the day he sat in the presidential chair. In this way, when Ranil was eyeing on the ballot box in the north, everyone had a problem as to why Sajith did not consider on this. Sajith was not bothered about what Ranil was doing. Sajith was observing what Ranil and the team said and did in the North. In the end, Sajith started a 5-day trip to the North with the ‘Sakwala’ program under this background. In those 5 days, the purpose of Sajith’s northern tour was to cover not only the entire North, but also the northern islands like Delft and Nagadeepa.
Sajith had been thinking about this northern trip not just yesterday, but even before last May. It was best seen due to a special statement made by Sajith at the SJB May Day rally. One of the things that Sajith publicly said on the May Day platform was that he would implement the 13th constitutional amendment after coming to power. Sajith said there that he would work to solve the North East political problem through that. But Sajith’s story did not get much response at that time. But Sajith, starting his trip to the north, went to Kilinochchi and told the same story in Kilinochchi as he did in the south. There, Sajith said without any hesitation that he is working to implement the 13th Amendment. With this statement of Sajith, everyone who knows well how the politics of the North behaves was shocked. The results of Sajith’s northern tour started coming together with this statement made by Sajith from Kilinochchi on the opening day itself.
Invitation from all corners
The first signal came from the Tamil National Alliance, the strongest political party in the north. As soon as Sajith made this statement, the Tamil National Alliance called Sajith and made an official invitation to the TNA party headquarters in Jaffna to hold a special discussion. The most special event was that no politician from the south to the north had been officially invited to visit their party office. As soon as he received this invitation, Sajith accepted it and confirmed that he would visit the Tamil Alliance Party headquarters. Not only the Tamil Alliance, but also the PLOT organization led by Dharmalingam Siddharthan, who broke away from them recently, and the EPRLF led by Suresh Premachandran. The organization also spoke to Sajith in the same way and said that they also want to discuss with him and accordingly to come to their party offices. Sajith accepted those invitations without thinking twice.
Mr. C.V.Vigneshwaran, who worked closely with the President so far, gave a call to Sajith stating that he also wants to meet Sajith. Sajith accepted the invitation. Sajith also took steps to accept the invitation according to the notification that he wanted to hold a discussion with Shashidharanda, who is another strongman in the North. Accordingly, at the end of all those discussions, with the media of the North reporting as top stories, it was seen that some political parties in the South were deeply disturbed. It was seen through this that some leaders of the South were very upset when Sajith received recognition from the parties in the North, which was not received by any political leader in the South.
Anura to Diaspora
During the discussion with the Tamil National Alliance, Sumanthiran informed Sajith about a particular matter. That is, on the following day, Anura Kumara has informed that he wants to come to Jaffna and meet his party representatives. There, Sajith directly said that he has no problem in that regard.
But why did Anura want to come to Jaffna the day after Sajith went to Jaffna and met and discussed with the Tamil Alliance members? Why he want to come to the Tamil Alliance party headquarters and discuss with them as Sajith did?
We also did some research in that regard, and there we came to know that since Anura was scheduled to start his visit to London on Wednesday, he had suddenly come to Jaffna and met the Tamil Alliance in order to prepare the necessary background for it. On the 16th, Anura is scheduled to participate in several conferences in London, where Anura is planning to meet and discuss with the Tamil diaspora. The people organizing those meetings have informed Anura that Sajith’s visit to Jaffna and Sajith’s declaration that the 13th constitutional amendment will be implemented during that visit, and through discussions at the party headquarters of the Tamil Alliance, have built a great admiration for Sajith among the Tamil diaspora in London.
Therefore, the event organizers in London had requested Anura to somehow discuss with the Tamil Alliance and make a statement similar to what Sajith had done. Anura had suddenly called the leaders of the Tamil Alliance and requested the opportunity for a meeting accordingly. As Sajith had made this request from Anura while he was in Jaffna, the Tamil Alliance informed Sajith about it, and since Sajith did not raise any objection to it, the Tamil Alliance had arranged to allow Anura to do so.
However, in the discussion held with the Tamil Alliance, they also took steps to express special thanks to Sajith for his fearless statement that the 13th Amendment will be implemented in Kilinochchi. Apart from that, a lengthy exchange of views was also seen between Sajith and the representatives of the Tamil Alliance regarding the upcoming presidential election.
What Siddhartha said to Anura
In addition, during Anura’s visit to Jaffna, Anura also took steps to meet plot leader Dharmalingam Siddharthan and discuss. PLOT Organization is the LTTE operating from Vavuniya. A political organization with more history than the organization itself. The reason for holding the meeting was the close relationship between the JVP and the PLOT organization from the past. Especially since the 88-89 JVP terrorist periods, JVP had built a close relationship with the PLOT organization. But later, it was not seen that the plot organization was in agreement with the politics of JVP.
The other special event that came to be seen along with the announcement made by Sajith in the north was that plot leader Siddharth also came to join Sajith’s Sakwala program. It was seen that many political issues were discussed between the two at length. Sajith had arranged to discuss with Siddhartha separately during that visit as per the invitation received from Siddhartha.
However, according to Anura’s request, Siddharthan also took steps to discuss with Anura, where Anura requested Siddharthan’s support for him in the upcoming presidential election. The most special event that came to be seen here was that Siddharthan directly declared to Anura that he will support Sajith in the upcoming presidential election. Thanking Anura for coming to discuss with him, Siddharthan clearly told Anura that seeing how the JVP worked during his term, this time the plot organization would most likely support Sajith. Moreover, Siddharthan had sent a message to Sajith the next day saying that he had informed Anura about this statement.
SLFP also come
Apart from this, the other special event that was seen during Sajith’s visit to Jaffna was that Mr. Angajan Ramanathan, who was the only representative representing the north by SLFP. Sajith visited in Jaffna, everyone could see Angajanda with Sajith. Although the SLFP had a strong position in the North since the time of Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, it was seen that the power of the SLFP in the North was slowly waning due to the racist politics during the time of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Angajana is currently the only member of parliament in the north for the SLFP.
Angajan is also working as the Chairman of the Committee of the Parliament. Therefore, Angajan is a very popular character among the people of the north. As the SLFP has now split into fractions, it has been seen how various political parties used various political tactics to capture Angajan. But Angajan had not responded to any of those invitations. In spite of that, it was seen how Angajan, without any invitation from Sajith, participated in Sajith’s programs of his own free will, and the SLFP vote bag in the north fell naturally into Sajith’s lap.
Cricket news
Apart from this, two other special events were witnessed during Sajith’s northern tour. One of them was a protest of unemployed graduates in front of Jaffna Kachcheriy. When Sajith came to Jaffna, he saw how these people were protesting and went to the place without any fear to negotiate with them. After the graduates informed Sajith of their problems, Sajith promised them that in the next parliamentary term, he would work to bring the problem of the unemployed Jaffna graduates to the attention of the government.
Apart from this, a statement made by Sajith in front of the young people who played cricket in Jaffna also attracted a lot of controversy last week. There, Sajith had asked the youth if there is a test cricket stadium in Jaffna. This conversation between Sajith and the youth was edited by a JVP social media group and a large smear campaign was carried out targeting Sajith. They had done this while Sajith was in Jaffna, because Anura too had gone to Jaffna, so as to cut the road necessary for his journey. To do so, they wanted to undermine Sajith’s Jaffna journey. Accordingly, the JVP Facebook team had arranged to capture two parts of Sajith’s story and make it into one story and send it to millions of people using social media.
But Sajith did not reverse his statement that it was so. Sajith remembered that a proposal had been made for the construction of an international stadium in Jaffna during the good governance period, and 50 acres of land needed for it had been allocated from the Mandativ area later. Accordingly, during a busy schedule, Sajith visited the Mandativ area to check the condition of the stadium. Sajith, who went to Mandativ, could see an empty land where the construction had stopped and only poles had been built around the land.
Accordingly, Sajith immediately made a phone call to the Jaffna Acting Divisional Secretary and asked him for information about the construction status of the stadium. After asking for such information, Sajith requested the Divisional Secretary to get the original plan of the stadium. Accordingly, giving a pledge to all those present, Sajith said that under the upcoming SJB government, this international stadium will be completed as a public-private joint project.
Accordingly, JVP had to add many more points to Sajith’s account for free by going to smear Sajith for Anura to go to Jaffna. Because of this video, many people in the south laughed at Sajith, but even the youth of the north came to know that such an international stadium was to build in Mandativ area because of that video. With that being reported, the ‘Inside Politics’ column also heard that a large number of young people from different areas had come to Mandathiv for the past few days to investigate the current condition of the stadium. Accordingly, last week, this stadium that Sajith unveiled in Jaffna had become a major topic among the youth, sports clubs and schools in the north.
Protests to 13
Apart from this, when Sajith announced that he would implement the 13th amendment by starting his Jaffna tour, it was seen that some group and a certain strongman related to the government in the south made plans to launch a big protest against it. A few moments ago, Sajith came to know about it because a special person had sent some WhatsApp messages sent by that strongman to several people to Sajith’s mobile phone. There were several such messages.
Thank you to everyone who participated in today’s discussion. It was decided to hand over a letter and hold a demonstration in front of the office of the opposition leader at 10 am on June 13. Representing all our Sinhalese organizations here, they agreed to involve their members for this, and representing the people of Mr. Arun Siddhartha’s north, a group of about 100 members also agreed to participate in the anti-13th protest. Rs. 33,470/- is expected to be spent for this purpose, and I kindly request those who can contribute more financially for this purpose. We appreciate your comments and suggestions.’
A financial contribution has been required for the buses coming from the north for the 13-day protest. I request you to give your contribution as soon as possible…’
Against Sajith’s 13 statements, all organizations can bring posters with at least 3 or 4 words on cardboard and write the name of their organization in small letters. (I will make sentences and send them to this group)’ was written on it.
However, in the meeting held with the Tamil Alliance leaders, Sajith showed these WhatsApp messages to Sumanthiran and the group, saying, ‘Can’t you see here what those who said they wanted to give 13 in the past, are doing today when I say I will give 13?’ Just like that, a group of twelve people came in front of the opposition leader’s office last Thursday and took steps to engage in a short protest.
However, not only Sajith but Anurad went to Jaffna and met the Tamil Alliance and claimed that the 13th Amendment would be implemented. But the special incident that came to be seen here was that the people who protested in front of the opposition leader’s office did not protest in front of the JVP office. At least we did not see a word against the story Anura said. Accordingly, many people said that the secret deal between the government and the JVP came to the knowledge of the country through this agitation.
A proposal to Rajitha
Earlier, we reported on the ‘Inside Politics’ column that Mr. Rajitha Senaratne, SJB Member of Parliament, is ready to join the government. There we said that Rajitha had planned to join the government on the 4th. But by now it is known that the journey has been delayed due to Rajitha’s continued demand for the post of Health Minister and the Minister Ramesh Pathirana is currently carrying out the duties of the Health Ministership without any problem, so the government’s notification that the post of Health Minister cannot be given to Rajitha. The move is kind of late.
On the other hand, the government may also see that it is in some sort of a jam based on Rajitha’s case. A year and a half ago, the government had given a list of the names of the MPs who should be given the ministerial position from Pohottuwa, which has resulted in a situation where it is impossible to give another ministerial position to Rajitha. Pohottuwa had informed the government that 12 MPs including Johnny, S.B. and Rohitha should be given ministerial positions. According to this, there is an argument that Rajitha cannot be given a ministerial position without first giving them the ministerial position.
Accordingly, it is known that several proposals have been made to Rajitha by the government. The first suggestion is that he should join the government first and then be given a ministerial post. The second proposal is to give Rajitha a National List Member of Parliament position in the next Parliament and allow Rajitha’s son Chatura Senaratne to contest from the UNP. Accordingly, it has been learned that Rajitha has the majority support for the second proposal.
In addition to this, last week, Rajitha spoke to a SJB MP in Ratnapura and gave a notice to prepare the group to join the government. Rajitha also participated in a discussion with the government’s Anura Priyadarshana Yapa group at a hotel in Thalawathugoda last week. Apart from this, Rajitha participated in a political program on independent television last week and was highly praised Ranil.
However, SJB is now moving along as if there is no MP named Rajitha in the party. If by any chance Rajitha goes to the government, SJB has already made arrangements to bring someone with a famous name to Kalutara. In this regard, two SJB seniors had taken steps to hold several rounds of discussions with that person last week. Within few days of Rajitha’s deflection, he agreed to take over Kalutara district. Since Sajith was in Jaffna during that time, the two seniors had arranged to call Sajith and inform him of this message.
Wimal to Ranil?
That there were several rounds of negotiations between Basil, who is considered to be the mastermind of Pohottuwa, and the President, and during those negotiations, the President had continuously informed that 25 MPs were ready to join the government. We had previously reported in the ‘Inside Politics’ column that Basil had informed the President that if this group could not be included in the government, Pohottuwa would make some political decisions. We further mentioned that the President is currently in a bit of a bind due to not being able to add a few from the team of 25 people.
Under this situation, during the talks held between the President and the representatives of Pohottuwa last week, several calls were received on the President’s phone, where it was observed to indicate the Pohottuwa representatives the call is from SJB he said, ‘This speaker SJB MP’ (mentions a name). Due to receiving the same phone calls in the presence of Pohottu representatives in two or three discussions, the Pohottu side now doubts whether the SJB MPs are actually making calls to the President during these discussions, or whether the President’s side is deliberately planning and making these calls to make it visible to Pohottuwa. Accordingly, due to the occurrence of two or three such incidents, the Pohottuwa seniors who are going to the discussion at this time have also seen a way of looking at these incidents with sarcasm.
In addition, in a discussion in which Basil also participated, the President informed that Champika, Wimal and Udaya Gammanpila can be added to his team.
Champika, Wimal and Udaya are good orators. I can get these people on my side. But they have a problem with Basil. That’s why they are a little reluctant to come…’ when the President said, Basil immediately responded, ‘There is no problem, President, if you can leave someone and take them, take them. I will stand aside.’ Basil had said. According to the unofficial news, two members of the President’s steering committee have been assigned the task of coordinating with Wimal and Udaya.
In addition to this, another unofficial source we have says that the President and Wimal Udaya discussed at Shangri-La Hotel in a house belonging to Dilith Jayaweera. It has been further learned from the unofficial news that the President has arrived there under minimum security and that this discussion has been held before Dilit’s visit to Australia.
According to rumours, it is said that the reason why the President could not get 25 MPs apart from Rajitha is that the President has now fallen behind Wimal and Udaya.
Ranil’s Indian show
While Sajith and Anura were planning their trip to Jaffna in the last few weeks, the President was planning how to attend the ceremony of Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister of India for the third time and hold a big media show in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, the President planned to invite Modi to come to Sri Lanka first during his visit to India and after accepting the invitation, he would put on a big show in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, during the presidential election period, the president had also started an unofficial discussion behind the scenes to somehow bring Modi to Sri Lanka and make a big impact on the election stage.
However, from India’s side, not only the president but also other heads of state in the region like Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh were officially invited for Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. The Indian media had reported that some of the invitations had been given personally by Modi.
However, although the President went to India to put on a big media show with a large media group, an additional secretary to the Government of India had come to Delhi airport to welcome the President. And the star at this swearing-in ceremony was none other than the new President of Maldives. Because the new president of Maldives had close relations with China, there was a cold war between the Prime Minister of India and the President of Maldives. But due to the fact that the Maldivian President accepted Modi’s invitation and participated in Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, everyone’s attention was focused on the Maldivian President rather than our President.
3 minutes for Ranil
In addition, Modi had given three minutes to each state leader who participated in this event to discuss with him. Accordingly, the President was also was able to talk to Modi personally within those three minutes.
Also, there has been a very close relationship between the President and the Gandhi family in the past. Accordingly, many thought that there would be a meeting between the Gandhi family and the President. But in conjunction with this event, the Gandhi family had a special meeting with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were also present on that occasion.
Under such circumstances, due to not being able to get a big boost from the India visit as planned, suddenly at the end of the visit, a message issued by the Presidential Media Unit said that the President had invited Modi to come to Sri Lanka, Modi accepted the invitation and Modi will visit Sri Lanka in August. Although such an announcement was issued by the Presidential Media Unit, no such announcement was released n by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs or the Indian media. Also, since the presidential election was announced by August, it is impossible to think that Modi will visit Sri Lanka during such elections.
Champika – Basil meeting
Champika, who left the SJB, subsequently formed multiple organizations and parties, releasing several manifestos and declaring his intention to run for the presidential election. He spoke of building a broad alliance, but his efforts have not gained significant traction in society. Consequently, Champika reached out to Sajith a few weeks ago, seeking to reestablish dialogue.
Sajith, after multiple requests from various intermediaries, finally agreed to meet Champika. Champika met with Sajith twice, discussing his political opportunities within the party. However, Sajith made it clear that there is strong opposition to Champika within the party due to his departure and criticism of the party’s policies. We have detailed information on these discussions and are prepared to disclose it to the public if necessary.
After negotiations to return to the SJB collapsed, Champika formed the United Republic Front, inviting Chandrika and Maithri, political adversaries of the Rajapaksa family, to the launch event.
Recently, several websites reported that Champika, known for his strong stance against the Rajapaksas, met with Basil Rajapaksa to discuss the upcoming presidential election and also secretly met with Mahinda Rajapaksa. Reports suggested that Champika considered contesting the general election under the Pohottuwa banner and proposed that Pohottuwa join the opposition, enabling negotiations with groups like Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanpila, and Dullas Alahapperuma to build a broad alliance.
In response to these rumours, on Saturday (8th), a person claiming to be the general secretary of the United Republic Front stated official letterhead. The statement refuted the headline “Even after meeting Sajith twice, the door was closed; Champika secretly meets Basil to seek a new road,” which had appeared on several websites on the previous day (7th), and asserted that the news was false.
The entire article is as follows.
Correcting a false news report
Yesterday (2024.06.07) several websites published news with headlines like ‘Sajith meets twice, but the door closes, Champika secretly meets Basil to cut a new road’. We emphasize that their news is false.
A united step for the country, which was popularized by the United Republic Front on February 14, 2024, was to openly discuss the country building program with all political parties.
Accordingly, negotiations with many parties, including the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, were conducted in secret and not in public. Also, there was no response from the National People’s Force to discuss the program, and we had publicly stated that we would not negotiate with the political parties that contributed to the bankruptcy of the country.
Therefore, let us reiterate that we have not discussed with anyone who directly contributed to the bankruptcy of the country.
General Secretary, United Republic Front
Although Champika tried to deny the related news on Saturday, to everyone’s surprise, an English newspaper on Sunday made a special note in its political column and said that Champika went to Basil’s house in Battaramulla and took steps to meet him and discuss. The English newspaper had reported that in this discussion, Champika told Basil that Ranil would not run for the presidential election and that since he was ready to run for the presidential election, he had requested that Pohottuwa to support him. But the weekend English newspaper had also reported that Basil had not agreed to it.
Under this situation, Champika, who had once again given interviews to several YouTube channels, said that the news was completely false and that there was no meeting between him and the Pohottuwa leaders. But as yet there has been no denial from the side of Pohottuwa or the Rajakshas, so we will have to wait for some more time to know the truth or not of this story.
