Rajapakses command the Sole ownership of Pohottuwa
SJB Forms Strategic Alliance
Rohitha and SM Receive a Cold Shoulder from the Government
SJB Secures Remarkable Legal Victories
The secret revealed on July 20
A very crucial discussion was held last week at the residence of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to decide who would be the presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.
It is reported that in addition to Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa and Dhammika Perera have also participated in this highly confidential discussion, there has been a long discussion regarding running for the next presidential election.
Mr. Dhammika Perera has informed us that he is ready to contest if he is given the candidature in Pohottuwa.
At the end of the long discussion between the four people, the chiefs of Pohottua agreed to it.
Accordingly, it is said that an agreement has been reached to officially announce that Mr. Dhammika Perera will present himself as the candidate of Pohottuwa two days after the announcement of the date of the presidential election by the Election Commission.’
This is the news that we told the country through the main news of ‘Mawrata’ on July 20th. Or the news revealed to the country three weeks ago. Although we have prepared this report based on the information we received regarding that discussion, by now then ‘Inside Politics’ column has come to know that several other special events that have not been revealed so far have taken place in this discussion. No media at that time disclosed information about this meeting to the country because it was an extremely secret meeting held only for Rajapaksas. But because we received some information in that meeting, we decided to reveal the news as the main news to the country according to the information received at that time.
Dhammika show
However, until Mr Namal Rajapaksa emerged as the candidate for Pohottuwa last Wednesday, the country thought that Mr. Dhammika Perera would be the candidate for Pohottuwa. But last Tuesday night 06th, Mr Dhammika Perera sent a special letter to the General Secretary of Pohottuwa, Mr. Sagara Kariyawasam, in which he informed that he would not run for the presidential election due to unavoidable reasons.
The letter is given below.
06.08.2024
Honorable Advocate Mr. Sagara Kariyawasam,
Secretary General,
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.
Secretary-General,
Informing that I will not run as a candidate for the 2024 presidential election
Firstly, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the party leadership, you and all other political representatives for suggesting that I present myself as the candidate representing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna for the 2024 presidential election.
However, I kindly inform you that I will not run as a candidate for the 2024 presidential election due to personal reasons. I hereby add my best wishes for the advancement of the party and the success of its future activities.
thanks,
sincerely yours
Dhammika Perera (P.M.)
Plan ‘B’ developed
In this way, Dhammika writing a letter to the Secretary General of Pohottuwa on 06th and naming Namal Rajapaksa as the presidential candidate of the party on 07th is not something that happened however, of these events seem to have happened within 24 hours. However, beginning of chain of events can be traced back to the discussion held on July 20th that we mentioned earlier.
When the discussion was held on the 20th, the Rajapaksas had realized that Pohottuwa should have a plan ‘B’ in this regard, even though they had decided to nominate Dhammika as their candidate. The reason for this was that the Rajapaksa had received information that Dhammika was being pressured by various parties to withdraw from the presidential election battle. These pressures were so severe that Dhammika even decided to withdraw from the presidential race at a certain point. Dhammika had even informed Rajapaksas about this. The only thing the Rajapakses requested from Dhammika was that Pohottuwa would nominate another candidate, but until then, refrain from announcing that Dhammika would not contest the presidential election. Dhammika had agreed to it in the discussion.
Dinesh’s name came first
It was after that that the Rajapaksas of Pohottuwa prepared the ‘B’ plan for the presidential election. Mahinda, Bassil and Namal worked to design the plan that was prepared not only for the presidential election but also for the general election that will be held after that and the local government election that will be held after that. Also, in this discussion, there was a long discussion about how Pohottuwa should do politics in the future, about the groups that will leave Pohottuwa by expressing support for the president, about the candidate who should run from Pohottuwa, and about the parties trying to create crises within the Rajapaksa family.
While discussing about the candidate of Pohottuwe, the name of Dinesh Gunawardene came up first. A proposal was made there that Dinesh should be presented as the candidate for Pothottu due to he having done politics together with the Rajapaksas for many decades, his close friendship with him, being one of the most senior MPs in the current government, and serving as the Prime Minister. Accordingly, Basil considered it a duty at that moment to make a phone call to Dinesh to ask his position on the matter. Dinesh asked for some time to answer that and at the same time spoke to none other than President Ranil Wickramasinghe. Although there is no information as to whether it was due to an agreement, Dinesh had called Basil through the return mail and informed him that he was not ready to run as the presidential candidate. Accordingly, Dinesh’s nomination failed.
Namal accepts the challenge
With Dinesh’s decision, the Rajapaksas decided to invite the next senior member of the government, the leader of the House, Susil Premajayantha, to take up the presidential candidacy. Accordingly, it was a special event and after Basil called Susil and informed him about it, Susil also refused it. With that notification, Namal said that if the party is ready to nominate him, he is ready to accept the challenge. After Namal expressed his wish, Mahinda and Basil decided to prepare Namal as the presidential candidate of Pohottuwa and to keep it a secret until the last moment. Namal started traveling around the country as the national organizer of Pohottuwa based on the agreement reached in this discussion.
Influences from a businessman
Meanwhile, as we mentioned earlier, various operations had been launched by various parties to keep Dhammika away from the presidential race. One of the operations was launched by none other than a well-known businessman who once worked very closely with the Rajapaksa family. This businessman is considered to have earned a huge fortune from highway construction projects during Mahinda’s regime and is also considered to have a close relationship with the current president. Also, this businessman is known to work very closely with Mahinda’s wife Shiranti, Yoshita and Rohitha Rajapaksa. These days, this businessman has gone to Thailand for a business purpose. From there, this businessman launched the operation to remove Dhammika from the presidential race by making calls to members of the Rajapaksa family. The Rajapaksas were also not aware of the double role played by this businessman. That is why the Rajapaksas kept a close eye on the messages coming from that side.
People are happy
Accordingly, at the beginning of last week, the Rajapaksas decided to end the drama they have been performing so far and leak the information to certain parties that Dhammika will withdraw from the presidential race. As soon as that information was reported, the people who had launched the operation to remove Dhammika from the presidential race immediately called the heads of the government with great joy and said that ‘Dhammika is out of the race’. Accordingly, in those messages, they had informed the heads of the government that a presidential candidate would not be nominated from Pohottuwa and that the President would come to the feet of Pohottuwa.
In the meantime, Pohottu had launched various strategies to mislead everyone. Accordingly, the Pohottuwa party put up a poster all over the country on Monday, hinting that Dhammika would contest the presidential election. Also, putting on a big media show, the news that the Pohottuwa candidate would come out of the lotus pond was announced, hinting that Dhammika would come out like that. But by Wednesday afternoon, a message released by Pohottuwa said that instead of Nelum Pokuna, it has been decided to reveal the Pohottuwa candidate to the country at Nelum Mawatha, the party headquarters. Also, by Wednesday evening, another message that came out from Pohottuwa side said that Dhammika will not contest the presidential race, and that the letter indicating that has been submitted to the Secretary General of Pohottuwa.
Namal’s posters printed
Meanwhile, at the beginning of last week, the ‘Mawrata’ newspaper had received the hint that Namal would be the candidate of Pohottuwa. One of the incidents was that we received the information that 80 lakh posters of Namal had been handed over to a certain company for printing. It was also reported to us that the related graphic design had been handed over to a certain company two weeks ago.
Even though we had received all the facts at the same time as to whom it was handed over and by whom, we did not disclose the relevant information to our country due to moral reasons as the information that Dhammika’s presidential candidature had already been confirmed. However, the message to start printing Namal’s 80 lakh posters was received from the concerned places last Monday night. Accordingly, we had received the hint that Namal would contest the presidential race on Monday.
Second hint
The second hint that Namal will come to the presidential battle was seen a few days ago when Namal suddenly posted a message on Twitter and reported a special meeting between him and the Indian High Commissioner of Sri Lanka with a photo. Although many thought this was an isolated incident and did not pay much attention to it, it was through that incident that the second hint confirmed that Namal is coming to the presidential race from the bud.
Namal Worship Sri Maha Bodhi
The third happened last Wednesday. Usually, Mahinda started all important events in his political life after worshiping Jayasree Maha Bodhi. From the time he ran for the presidential election in 2005, Mahinda made it a habit to go to Srimaha Bodhi in every important duty that came his way. Going in the same way, Namal was not anywhere else on the 6th but at Jayasree Maha Bodhya in Anuradhapura. Without any member of parliament, without any media, without much publicity, Namal went to Jayashree Maha Bodhi and received blessings with his future activities in mind.
On receiving the information that Dhammika Perera had decided to withdraw from the presidential race by Wednesday evening, the journalists kept calling Namal and asking him about it, Namal said that he did not know anything about it, and according to a notification made by his father and Basil, he suddenly left Anuradhapura. He is coming to Colombo. But even then, Namal was working according to the screen script copied by the Rajapaksas in an extremely secret manner.
Candidate is out
Everyone got to see the culmination of this screenplay at the Pohottu party office on Nelum Mawatha on Wednesday morning. That is with the nomination of Namal Rajapaksa as the candidate of Pohottuwa. Namal, who made a brief comment to the party members after winning the candidature of Pohottuwa, later took steps to make a special note on his Facebook page.
A ship is safe until it is anchored in port. But the ships of the world were not designed to be anchored in harbours.
I accept the challenge. I will end this battle with you in victory and thankful for the trust placed in me by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.
The official ceremony of announcing Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s 2024 presidential candidacy was held yesterday at the party headquarters premises.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who came and congratulated…’ was written in the Facebook message.
Where is Dhammika?
In the meantime, many people began to find out what happened to Dhammi after Namal entered the presidential race. But since Dhammika’s phone was already switched off, no one could find out what happened to Dhammika. At that time, information spread in the political field said that Dhammika had left for London without telling anyone. While searching about it, it was learned that the story of Dhammika going to London is completely false, that Dhammika stay in Colombo, and that had assured to Basil and Namal that he would actively contribute to Namal’s election campaign.
The bud raises its head
However, with the nomination of Namal as Pohotttuwa presidential candidate, the ‘inside politics’ column learned that once again the village-level Pohotttuwa parties are raising their heads. There is a strong network, especially at the village level in Pohottuwa, and it is also known that the former presidents and vice presidents have started campaigning for Namal at the village level by going door to door once again. Accordingly, on Friday, a message received from the party headquarters in Pohottuwa said that with the arrival of Namal, Pohottuwa has once again started raising its head at the village level.
8 leave the government
Also, there is news that Pohottu chiefs have decided to take a tough decision in the future regarding the Pohottu MPs who have left Pohottu to support the President. Our information says that after Namal’s nomination is handed over to the President, 8 state ministers are ready to leave the ministries and come to Namal’s support. They are the state ministers Shashindra Rajapakse, Tenuka Vidanagamage, Indika Anuruddha, Prasanna Ranaweera, D.V. Chanaka, Siripala Gamlath, Ashoka Priyantha and Mohan de Silva are the state ministers. The news is that they have decided to step down as ministers within the next few days.
However, it has been learned that some of the ministers who have supported the President have already made a firm decision not to rejoin the party.
The alliance formed
With the intensification of the presidential election battle, various members, parties, groups and civil organizations are gathering these days to give strength to the main candidates. Here, the most talked about and influential groups in the society are gathering around SJB candidate Mr. Sajith Premadasa. Confirming that, on last Thursday, Sajith took steps to form the Samagi Jana Sansandhanaya. In this event held at the Sugathadasa Stadium, Sajith was supported by political leaders who have hundreds of thousands of votes, who are recognized by the country, who have no corruption charges, and who are loyal. Rauf Hakeem, Mano Ganesan, P. Digambaram, V. Radhakrishnan, Dallas Alahapperuma, and G.L. Pieris Political representatives like Dayasiri Jayasekara and Arjuna Ranatunga did the signing. Apart from this, this column hear that the most popular figures of the country, who cannot even be imagined at certain critical moments until the presidential election is near, have already given their word to join Sajith.
Champika is also coming
Another main character in it is Patali Champika Ranawaka, the leader of the United Republic Front. Champika was elected to Parliament this year as a member of Samagi Jana Balawegaya. Later, Champika, who left Sahab, joined other forces and groups to launch a massive attack on Sahab. Champika once went to discuss with the President. Another time along with Rajitha Senaratne, Nimal Lanza also went to discuss with the team. But Champika finally decided to meet Sajith again last week. Also, on two previous occasions, Champika met the Secretary-General Ranjith Maddumabandara in Parliament and worked to create the necessary background for this. Accordingly, in the next few days, Champika has decided to strengthen Sajith’s hands once again with the SJB New Alliance.
Rohitha disliked
Meanwhile, along with Rohitha Abeygunawardena, S.M. Chandrasena and Pavitra Vanniarachchi coming together to support the President was noted. Rohitha went to support the President even before Namal was appointed as the candidate for Pohottuwa, and after announcing that Namal was the candidate, Pavithra had announced that she would support the President.
However, here Rohitha Abeygunawardena and S.M. joining the government has drawn a big opposition within the government for joining the President’s side. Although some thought it was a great advantage for the President to join these two, many had pointed out to the President that the growing appreciation for the President in the middle class had completely turned down with the joining of these two. Therefore, they thought that all these people should be kept hidden from the campaign activities after the election campaign started.
Why Hakeem came earlier
Ranil, after assuming the office of the President, one of his main political goals was to break SJB into two and completely end SJB politics. Accordingly, since the day he took office, the President has engaged in the business of extorting MPs by giving them various ministerial positions and privileges. Because of this, the leaders of the UNP have been giving comments to the media from time to time and said that about 25 SJB MPs are to join the government shortly. Once UNP General Secretary Range Bandara told the media that 40 SJB MPs were preparing to join the government. Because of this, Pohottuwa also gave ultimatums to the President and told him to bring the SJB MPs whom he promised to take to the government. But in those few days, the President was not able to add even one person to the government, let alone 40 SJB MPs.
In this way, the biggest plan of the president was to break the leaders of minority parties who are with SJB. Accordingly, the President set a trap for Rauf Hakeem and Rishad Badurdeen, who are with Sajith. Since Hakeem had expressed his unwillingness to reunite with the President from the beginning, the President had continued to have relations with other members of Hakeem’s party.
As this has happened to Hakeem on many occasions, to end the double politics, Hakeem called the Supreme Council of the party to Colombo to make the final decision regarding the candidate to be supported in the presidential election. There, two or three people had declared that they should support the President, but the vast majority were of the position that they should continue politics with Sajith, so in the end, the supreme body of the Muslim Congress decided to support Sajith in the presidential election. Accordingly, Hakeem proceeded to announce the decision to the country on the same day.
Is Rishad going?
After failing to break Hakeem’s net in this manner, the President could have seen a way of paying close attention to Rishad. Accordingly, the news that Rishad had decided to support the President was seen appearing in some media from time to time. Some ministers of the government also told the media that Rishad’s support is for the president. Because of this, Rishad’s party, the Supreme Council of the All Ceylon Muslim Congress also met last week and took steps to discuss this matter. A few members of the party expressed their opinion in favour of the President and the majority in favour of Sajith, so it was finally decided to convene the Supreme Council of the party again the day before the nominations and announce the final decision.
Although the decision of Rishad’s party was officially announced in this way, there was an occasion last week when the decision came out unofficially.
It was at a funeral ceremony held on the occasion of the death of the mother of a certain well-known businessman. Because this businessman works closely with all the politicians, it was seen many people from both parties and opposition parties were present at the funeral. There, Prasanna Ranatunga, who is with the President these days, was also present at the funeral, and because Namal was also there at that time, there was a friendly discussion between Namal and Prasanna.
Prasanna was asked about the political situation these days. In response, Prasanna said, ‘Now Ranil’s side is getting stronger. A few more people are coming to join Ranil.” he said. Then Namal asked who else was coming. In reply, Prasanna said that Hakeem and Rishad are also going to come to Ranil’s aid. But since Hakeem had already signed the alliance with Sajith, Namal said with a smile, ‘Hakeem has now joined Sajith’s alliance and signed it. So how is Hakeem coming? Who told this to the minister?’ Prasanna replied that the President informed the government ministers about this. Prasanna also said that the President said that 25 SJB MPs are ready to join the government in the future.
‘Ah, then winning now is not a problem. Namal took steps to end the conversation by saying, ‘Pohottuwa’s support is not needed then.’
4 against
However, another special point should be mentioned here. It means that both Hakeem and Rishad have made a final decision about the group to support the presidential election. In the last Supreme Politburo meeting of Rishad’s party, only four members of the Politburo stood for Sajith. But Rishad said in front of the media that he will announce his decision on the 14th because the influence of the government has intensified.
Wijayadasa reveals secrets
The person making news these days is none other than former Justice Minister Vijayadasa Rajapaksa. When Vijayadasa left the post of Minister of Justice, we made a special disclosure in the ‘inside politics’ column and said that Wijayadasa had planned to make several controversial revelations that would shake the government. As we said, Wijayadasa, who resigned from the ministry, took steps to make the first revelation after a few days.
Wijayadasa said that there were many conspiracies within the government to postpone the presidential election and that if he was not in the position of justice minister, it would not even be possible to hold a presidential election. Through that, Wijayadasa said without saying that when the cabinet came up with various strategies to postpone the presidential election, he acted against them and worked to defeat those strategies.
Wijayadasa, who made the first revelation in that way, went to Kilinochchi last week and took steps to make another special revelation. It is also a secret that has not come out till now. The stories read so far have confirmed that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa invited Sajith and Anura to take the Prime Ministership after Mahinda stepped down from the Prime Ministership. But speaking for the first time last week, Wijayadasa said that after Mahinda’s resignation, Gota called him first and informed him to take over the post of Prime Minister. Wijayadasa also said that while he was preparing for it, the Rajapaksas went and pressured Gota to give Ranil the post of Prime Minister.
‘When there was an aragalaya in this country, to calm this country and build this country, on May 12, 2022, President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa took a decision and informed me to accept the position of Prime Minister of the government. After learning about it, the people of Pohottuwa got worried and quickly brought Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe and exerted pressure, and the President had to give him the Prime Ministership’ which was the secret Wijayadasa revealed there.
Back-to-back wins for SJB
In the last week, we could see how the Samagi Jana Balawega achieved several victories in a row. The first of which was to be able to sign the largest alliance in political history. The second was the ruling by the Supreme Court that the decision taken to expel Harin Fernando and Manusha Nanayakkara from the party, who joined the government after coming to parliament from SJB, was legal. The third was Sarath Fonseka, who sought an injunction from the Supreme Court to prevent his removal from the party’s post as party president, as well as Kelaniya SJB seat organizer. Accordingly, it was seen that several headaches that had been in SJB for a long time were resolved within one week.
Responses to Fonseka
However, Sarath Fonseka is currently preparing to join the presidential battle after lodging his election baili as a presidential candidate. Accordingly, many people pointed out to the party leaders that Sajith and SJB would be targeted and attacked throughout Fonseka’s presidential election campaign. Accordingly, there were long discussions regarding how to respond to it in the discussions held within SJB throughout the last few days. Not only were there discussions about the possible attacks from Fonseka, the responses to them, etc., but the party had also decided to appoint a separate team to respond to Fonseka.
The economic policy is also ready
In addition to this, another extraordinary incident that was not known to the media happened in SJB last week. That is the preparation and finalization of the final draft of the SJB economic policy last week. Many economic experts including Dr. Harsha de Silva, Iran Wickramaratne and Kabir Hashim participated in this discussion which lasted for several hours. Apart from them, Sajith also joined this group and took steps to comment at length on how the economic policy should be prepared.
Sajith and others to prepare a document containing permanent proposals and policies such as how to manage the economy under a SJB government that will be established after winning the presidential election, how to provide quick relief to the people, how to deal with the International Monetary Fund, how to deal with the international community, how to get foreign projects, etc. The team had worked. By now, it has decided to officially publicize that economic policy in the coming week.
