Why NPP suddenly decides to announce presidential candidate.
Finally UNP decides to hold party convention at famous car park in fort
What Maithri did
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is a huge party that ruled this country for 25 years and produced the world’s first female prime minister and two presidents. Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was the world’s first Prime Minister who was from Sri Lankan freedom Party. The two presidents were Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa. Such a strong party’s downfall began in 2015 when Mr. Maithripala Sirisena, who was the party’s general Secretary at the time, left the party and joined with the UNP to compete for the presidency.
Maithrie, who won the presidential election with the help of the UNP, later managed to take over the leadership of the Sri Lankan National Party almost by force. Later, Maithri also took steps to form the Sri Lanka freedom Party – UNP good governance government by giving Cabinet Ministerships to several members of the Sri Lankan Party. At the end of 2019, when Maithri stepped down from the presidency, Maithri had worked to reduce the number of MPs of the party over one hundred MPs to twelve MPs. After that, Maitri contested the parliamentary elections from the presidency and came back to the parliament as an ordinary member.
In general, Maithri is considered as a leader who says one thing today, another tomorrow, and does something completely different from what he said. Or as a politician who doesn’t do what he says and suddenly changes his colour. Maitri, who accused the entire Rajapaksa family during the 2015 presidential election, said that after the presidential election, the thefts would be exposed and the Rajapaksa family would be jailed. In the end, instead of catching the thefts of the Rajapaksas, Maithri brought Mahinda through the back door and proceeded to re-appoint him as the Prime Minister. In another instance, he said Maithri formed new party, that party would make the Rajapaksas walk on the streets. In the end, Maithri had to compete in the general election from the same ‘pot’ established under the leadership of the Rajapaksa and enter the parliament as a mere member of parliament.
When Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe was elected by Parliament as the President after Gota’s resignation, Maithri attended a party’s Central Committee meeting and decided that no one from the Sri Lankan Freedom Party would be a minister in Ranil’s government. But going beyond the party’s decision, a group including Nimal Siripala de Silva, Mahinda Amaraweera, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Chamara Sampath Dasanayake joined forces with Ranil. Maithrie took strict disciplinary action against them and remove them from the party by cancelling all their positions and removing them from the party. However subsequently , Maithrie took steps to suspend all the disciplinary measures imposed on Nimal Siripala and Amaraweera and call them back for the party’s meetings.
Maithrie did so in a background where a group including Party General Secretary Mr. Dayasiri Jayasekara was adamant that the decision taken by the party should continue to be implemented. Dayasirila’s position was that instead of joining a government that does not have the support of the people and taking positions, they should join the opposition and create a populist government. In this regard, Dayasiri and the SLFP team had also participated in many rounds of discussions between the opposition parties.
In this way, there are several issues that many people doubt regarding the re-joining of Nimal Siripala and Amaraweera, who were suddenly removed from the party by Maithri. One of them is the spread of rumors that Maithri is very afraid of the accusations against Maithri based on the Easter attack. Maithri has already received a court order to pay more than one crore rupees compensation for the Easter victims from his personal money. Many people are of the opinion that it is because of that fear that Maithri has taken steps to bring the Sri Lankan freedom Party ministers close to him.
Another decision is made
However, due to the influence of these ministers who took positions together in the government, Maithrie took another controversial decision last week. That is about the upcoming party conference. In the last Central Committee meeting, a decision was taken to hold this year’s party conference in Kurunegala ,Hettipola constituency, which was the district of Party General Secretary Dayasiri. After taking that decision, for the last few weeks Dayasiri had made great sacrifices to hold the Conference in a grand manner and to make it successful, holding meetings, informing the party members and taking further measures. Moreover, Dayasiri had even sent invitations to the leaders of the party, the seat organizers, Kurunegala Maha Sagaah and the general public, inviting them to come to the conference.
But last week, Maithrie, who suddenly spoke to Dayasiri, said that some security problem has arisen regarding the holding of the Srilanaka freedom Party Conference in Hettipola. There, Maithri told Dayasiri that the government ministers are also going to participate in this year’s party conference, and they have received information that some people are preparing to boo them in an organized manner.
Dayasiri,there is a small problem with the Hettipola Federation. Those who became ministers in the government have promised to come to the conference. But they have a little fear that Johnny will come here and yell at them. So they say let’s hold the conference in Colombo without Kurunegala. But Dayasiri, who spoke without showing it, said that there is no chance of such a thing happening.
‘How can that happen? This is my seat. Johnny doesn’t have the strength to come here. Now I have finished organizing the conference headquarters. The invitations have been sent. Therefore, it cannot be changed…’ but Maithri said again that since there is a problem regarding security, arrangements should be made to hold the conference in Colombo. But no final decision was taken at that time.
Drags Chandrica
After this incident, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga was the second trump that Maithri played to bring the party conference from Kuranegal to Colombo. There was a close political friendship between Maithri and Chandrika until 2015, and it is believed by many that Chandrika was the one who rescued Maithri from the Rajapaksas and took him out of the government. The Maithri-Chandrika friendship started to deteriorate when Maithri again conspired to join the Rajapaksas. After that, the conflict between Maithri and Chandrika was seen in the open, and Maithri publicly accused Chandrika. Chandrika also publicly accused Maithri. In short, both of them washed their clothes in public.
But a few months ago, we revealed in the ‘Inside Politics’ column that there had been some exchange of messages between Maithri and Chandrika in the past. We pointed out that the SLFP ministers who are connected to the government are acting as mediators and that this group has the idea of getting Chandrika’s support for the new alliance that Ranil Wickramasinghe is planning to form to make him president again. We mentioned there that their plan is to bring Maithri and Chandrika to this alliance.
Under this background, the SLFP ministers are now ready to bring the satellite to the SLFP conference. Their aim is to bring Chandrika back into the party and strengthen the SLFP. It is reported that Chandrika has also stated that if she is given considerable power in the reorganization efforts of the SLFP, she can come forward for that.
Accordingly, Maithrie spoke to Dayasiri again last week and took steps to use the ‘Chandrika trump’ to bring the party conference from Kurunegala to Colombo. There Maithri said that Chandrika was also going to participate in the conference, but because Kurunegala was too far away, Chandrika was reluctant to participate.
Individual opinion
Dayasiri is the big problem. Chandrika would like to come to the conference. But they say it is difficult to come because the distance is too far. When Maithri said, “If we are in Colombo, we will come…”, Dayasiri also said that all arrangements have been made to hold the conference, and if it is too far for Chandrika to participate in the conference, they can send a helicopter or arrange to bring her there.
In this way, when Maithri’s attempt to take the convention to Colombo by presenting various excuses to Dayasiri failed, Maithri issued an announcement to his party and informed that he decided to hold the party convention in Colombo ‘for security reasons’. The most special occurrence here was that neither members like Dayasiri as party general secretary or members like Shan Vijayalal, who are currently remaining in the Sri Lankan Freedom Party, were unaware that Maithri was issuing such an announcement. Accordingly, Maithrie has decided to hold the party conference shifting it from Kurunegala to Colombo Monarch Imperial Hotel in Thalavathugoda, a luxury luxury hotel in Colombo.
However, with the reporting of this information, we were also engaged in investigating the political position of involvement of Chandrika again. There we learned that Chandrika has expressed her willingness to join the SLFP Convention platform under the condition that she will be given full power to carry out the reorganising the party. There is also rumour that Chandrika has informed that she is not ready to stand on the stage and waive her hand in vain.
Will there be a fight?
However, it is also reported that nearly 90% of the party’s constituency organizers have expressed strong opposition to the Maithri single-mindedly shifting the party conference to Colombo. Over the last few days, there have been various discussions and telephone calls between the SLFP seat organizers in this regard, where many have mentioned that strict action should be taken against this. Also, as seat organizers, are of the opinion that they should organize an organized protest against these arbitrary activities of the party leadership.
In general, if we take the history of Sri Lankan Party, there was a culture of serious conflicts between the party leaders from the past. Slamming, scolding, booing, overturning chairs, going to court etc. within the party are events that have been part of SLFP culture since then. In some cases, there were many cases of rebellion against the party leaders in this culture. Accordingly, it has been seen that there has been a strong doubt among the party’s high-ranking leaders that there will be a serious division within the party based on that culture at this year’s party convention.
UNP is getting ready
While the Sri Lanka Freedom Party is taking its 72nd convention in a luxury hotel in Colombo, the United National Party is preparing to hold its 77th party convention in a grand manner these days. According to a decision taken at the last party working committee meeting, this year the UNP has planned to hold its conference for the first time in a Colombo car park. It is in the car park located in the lower area in front of the Lake house.
However, the land with the car park has a great political history. That is because this land had cut the road even to overthrow a very powerful government. The Mahinda Rajapaksa government at that time had decided to give this land to James Packer; the owner of the ‘Crown’ casino business nicknamed the world’s casino king. That is to build a huge hotel with casinos there. But the nationalist forces, including Mr. Champika Ranawaka, who were in the government at that time, did not allow it. In the end, what happened was that due to this opposition, Champikala got out of the government, paving the way to the end of Mahinda’s rule. Accordingly, this year the UNP has chosen a land which initiated the collapse of a government, to hold its 77th Congress.
On the other hand, the fact that the land is located much lower than the main road is also a special event. There is also great curiosity among many regarding the choice to hold a conference of a major party in such a place for the first time. However, as we revealed earlier, the UNP is going to make some special decisions at this year’s General Conference. The first of these is to move the selection of the party’s leader away from the working committee, which has a limited number of people, and to give it to the party’s executive council, which has a large number of people. Through this, party leader Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe has planned to avoid the possibility of opposition to the party leadership from the working committee. Ranil has also planned to appoint the new office bearers of the party at this conference as all the other positions have been abolished except for the top positions of the party.
Sajith gets angry
Meanwhile, the meeting of Samagi Jana Balawega’s parliamentarian groups was held at the office of the opposition leader under the chairmanship of party leader Mr. Sajith Premadasa last Monday. At the beginning of the meeting, the leader of the opposition Sajith Premadasa had taken steps to make a rather harsh speech due to the fact that two or three members of the SJB had gone outside the party’s position and made statements suggesting that the President should join the SJB. There, Sajith said that he will not turn this party into a carpet to come and go when he wants.
Also, the group took steps to pass a special resolution on the broadest political alliance to be formed with SJB as the main focus. It is about including minor parties and political movements and civil organizations in addition to the main political parties of the opposition. Resolutions were also passed that Mr. Sajith Premadasa should appear as the presidential candidate of this alliance in the upcoming presidential election.
An urgent statement from JVP
In the midst of all this, the JVP also took steps to announce its party’s presidential candidate last week, exactly one year before the presidential election. In a special statement, JVP Publicity Secretary Mr. Vijitha Herath said that Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake is ready to run as his party’s candidate in the upcoming presidential election.
There were several reasons why JVP announced its presidential candidate without delay . Some of the main points were that various rumours regarding JVP have on social media networks as of last week. One of the rumours was that the JVP was going to join the broadest alliance of the opposition which will be formed under the leadership of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya. Another rumour said that Dallas is ready to appear as the common candidate of the opposition, and that the JVP has decided to support Dallas. In addition, another rumour said that Harini Amarasuriya, a JVP member of parliament, has been prepared to be presented as the JVP candidate in the next presidential election. Accordingly, to put an end to all these rumours, last week Vijitha announced that the JVP presidential candidate is none other than Anura Kumara..
Stalin adamant
Last week in the ‘Inside Politics’ column, we made a special disclosure and reported that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a speech in the Indian Parliament that indicated that he is working to get the island of Kachchathiv belonging to Sri Lanka back to India. We also reported how Indira Gandhi, who ruled India at that time, Modi made an accusation against the Gandhi family and said that this island, which was owned by India, had been handed over to Sri Lanka. Accordingly, it is known that Modi’s Kachchathiv statement has become a major topic in several states of South India including Tamil Nadu.
The slogan presented by Modi has now been picked up by none other than Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. It can be seen from the events happening in India these days that Kachchathiv will become a major topic not only in Tamil Nadu but also in India in the upcoming state elections due to the fact that the election heat in Tamil Nadu has started rising gradually.
Accordingly, Stalin, who made a special statement in Tamil Nadu last week, stated that the continued existence of Kachchathivu Island under Sri Lanka will adversely affect the Catholics and the fishing community in South India. Stalin said that there has been an increase in the number of attacks on Indian fishermen who are fishing in the vicinity of Kachchathiv, and through this, the weakness of the Modi government can be seen. Because of this, Stalin, who said that Kachchathiv Island, which was handed over to Sri Lanka by Indira Gandhi in 1974, should be returned to India immediately, his father, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Karunanidhi has given a special report in this regard to the Indian government he said.
Stalin chose to make such a statement at the Fishermen’s Conference where thousands of Indian fishermen had gathered. Last week it was held in Ramanadapuram, South India. Based on the high response given by the Tamil Nadu fishermen to Stalin’s speech, it can now be mentioned that in the upcoming elections, the island of Kachchathiv belonging to Sri Lanka will be the top topic on the Indian political stage.
Intelligence report
When India is getting ready to take a big step in this way based on Kachchathiv Island, Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Velukumar made another special revelation in the Parliament based on India last week. Making such a special disclosure, Velukumar said that the Indian intelligence agencies have informed the country’s intelligence agencies that there is a possibility of a big racist riot taking place on the ground of Kundi Puda.
In fact, this is not the first time that Indian intelligence agencies have warned of an attack on Sri Lanka. Based on the 2019 Easter Sunday attack, the Indian intelligence agencies had reported to the country’s intelligence agencies about such an attack a few months before. But due to the failure of the authorities at that time to respond appropriately, the end result was that 300 innocent Catholics who were praying in the churches lost their lives and many others were injured. Therefore, Velukumar requested to act immediately on the information reported by the Indian intelligence agencies based on the Kurundi temple and prevent such a racist riot if there is a risk of it happening.
In addition, last week, another powerful member of the government, I.S.I.S. He also made a statement regarding terrorist members and disclosed that some of them have entered the country. According to this, SJB Member of Parliament Mr. Chaminda Wijesiri took steps to question the ruling party in Parliament last Wednesday. But the State Security Minister Pramitha Bandara Thennakone, who replied, said that no such information has been reported to the security forces so far.
The ship is coming
While statements are being issued from India regarding Kachchathiv Island, racist riots, etc., information about another conflict between India and China based on Sri Lanka has attracted special attention in the international media these days. It is based on the Chinese research vessel Xi Wang 6, which is said to be entering Sri Lanka despite India’s objection. China had requested permission for this ship to enter Sri Lanka a few months ago. When the information was reported, India officially protested and stated that the Chinese ship should not be allowed to enter Sri Lanka, as it may pose a threat to the security of the region.
But despite India’s objection, Sri Lanka has taken steps to allow this Chinese ship to enter Sri Lankan waters. The Navy had confirmed this and informed the media that the ship is scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka on October 25 and that the ship will stay in Sri Lanka for 17 days.
Anura Yapa lost his way
About 3 months ago, it was revealed to our country for the first time through the ‘Rajya Rahas ‘ column that they have decided to form a political alliance under the leadership of Mr. Nimal Lanza, who was a strong Member of Parliament from Pohottuwa, with the aim of making President Ranil Wickramasinghe the President again. For that, we revealed how Mr. Lanza of Pohottu gathered the ministers, how he contacted the village level leaders of Pohottu and how he started a new political office at Lake Drive in Rajagiriya.
However, we have mentioned here from time to time how Pohottuwa responded to Lanza’s operation. At the initial stage, many Pohottu members gathered around Lanza’s party, but now it has turned on its head because not only the party members but also many ministers of Pohottu are trying to avoid Lanza. Especially in creating this new front, Lanza’s plan was to make Mr. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, who was a senior leader of Pohottuwa, its leader and keep the post of party secretary general in his hands. Initially, Anura Yapa had expressed his interest, but as the response of the people began to decrease, Anura Yapa was reluctant to take the leadership of this party. Realizing this, Lanza then tried to make Susil Premajayantha the leader of this party. But Susil had taken steps to reject it completely.
Under this situation, Anura Yapa now has to face the situation where if you go home, you will die – if you stay on the way, you will die. We say this because Anura Yapa be politically lost without all three of them: Pohottuwa, SJB and Lanza’s party. Initially, with the emergence of crises within Pohottua, Anura Yapa sat in the opposition as an independent MP, and then steps were taken to hold several rounds of negotiations with SJB. After that, it was seen how Anura Yapa worked together with Lanza to form a new political party. But due to the fact that all those efforts have failed , Anura Yapa is now unable to imagine which party he will contest the next general election.
The bud is blooming
After the struggle that started last year, former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa left the country and resigned from the presidency, Pohottuwa faced a serious crisis. That is because with this crisis, the leaders of Pohottuwe have to face a situation where they cannot even go to the streets. Accordingly, until a few months passed, Pohottuwa was in a dormant state without engaging in any active political activities. At that time, the Pohottu party office on Nelum Mawatha had become a place where flies were flying, and no sign of anyone coming from that direction was seen in the province.
However, Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, who is considered to be the mastermind of Pohottuwa, seemed to be making plans on how to strengthen the party again even at that time. It was clearly seen with the advice that Basil had given when the MPs who were hiding talked to Basil and asked about the future activities. There, Basil told everyone not to worry about anything and that by next September or October, the party can be straightened up and brought back to a strong position.
Accordingly, Basil started the party’s constituency meetings in Heinsiruwe after a few months of the struggle and started the party’s reorganization activities. Conduct of Constituency Committees at District Level. Bringing out budding party members who were hiding. Accordingly, Basil was able to increase the number of MPs from 15 to 20 when the party reorganization started, to between 30 and 40 after the successful power meetings held in the last few months. Accordingly, Pohottuwa’s plan is to show his strength once again until a decisive moment in the Parliament arrives. Many people are of the opinion that it could be the 2024 budget to be presented to the Parliament next November. Two weeks ago, we revealed on the ‘State Secrets’ channel that Pohottuwa is planning to take a tough decision regarding the expenditure heads of several ministers who are currently in the government.
An issue for Dinesh
It was confirmed that the information we received and the disclosure we made was 100% true at the ruling party’s group meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dinesh Goonawardena last Monday. Since President Ranil Wickramasinghe was on a visit to Singapore, the ruling party’s MP group met under the chairmanship of Dinesh. As the amendment of the Antiquities Act and several other important bills were to be discussed during the parliamentary week, Dinesh had arranged to call the officials of the ministries to the meeting.
Through the amendment of the Antiquities Act, it was proposed to give gifts to the people who provide information about the destruction of archaeology. But lawyer Madhura Vithanage was the first to protest against it. Madhura said that this is completely wrong.
This is completely wrong. If you want to give gifts to those who inform like this, why are these officials there? First ask the officials to fulfill their responsibility. This is what happened to the customs today. There is also a complete lie. As gifts are given to the officials who are there to catch frauds, they serve in anticipation of receiving gifts. If the archaeological sites are being damaged, it is the responsibility of the officials here to look for them and take appropriate action….”When Madhura said, several other MPs from the back row came forward to support Madhura.
But in the midst of opposition from the MPs, Dinesh said that the proposal should be submitted to the Parliament this week anyway. But Madhura Vithanage gave a rather strict answer.
‘Okay, if the Prime Minister brings this proposal, then bring it. But we will beat this. When Madhura said that we cannot raise our hands and vote for these proposals, Dinesh realized that the news was not good. Accordingly, Dinesh set aside the proposal on the basis of the agreement to revise it and present it later.
CB is also angry
After that, there was a proposal presented by the Ministry of Tourism to designate Nuwara Eliya and the South as tourism zones. But the most special event to be seen there was that Tourism Minister Harin Fernando or State Tourism Minister Diana Gamage did not attend the group meeting. Accordingly, when there was no responsible minister to present the proposal, the MPs of Pohottua asked with a smile whether it was Harin or Diana who would present the proposal. While the MPs of Pohottu were laughing and commenting in this way, none other than the senior of Pohottu from Nuwara Eliya, C.B., strongly attacked the proposal. Ratnayake. CB It was said that this proposal is a useless proposal for five cents.
‘This is a meaningless proposal. Because once we brought an investor to build a cable car project in Nuwara Eliya in 2012. That investor was ready to build similar cable car projects in Sri Lanka and two other countries. But our officers did not allow it. They called each other and buckled this thing. Finally, after 11 years, such a proposal is being presented again. That investor did not build this project in our country but completed it in the other two countries. Now those countries are also making money from them. Therefore, because of some of these officers’ work, no work can be done properly in our country…” said C.B. A serious charge was made against the officers.
The government falls
However, since the parliamentary meeting was scheduled to start at that time, the Prime Minister was ready to end the group meeting, but at that moment, State Minister Vidura Wickramanayake was seen entering the hall where the group meeting was held. According to that, many MPs were seen asking Vidura about the issue of Kurundi Vihara, which has caused a lot of controversy these days. But since the parliamentary session was scheduled to begin at that time, Prasanna Ranatunga, the chief organizer of the ruling party, said that the issue should be discussed at another time.
But the MPs of Pohottuwa strongly objected and said that the issue should be discussed today. But when Dinesh tried to end the discussion without paying much heed to the request of the members, none other than Tissa Kuttiarachchi stood up as no one expected. Tissa Kutty stood up and said, ‘No, we want to talk about this today. Get the officers out of this room immediately. If that is not the case, today or tomorrow, this government will fall…’ and the prime minister was also shocked when Tissakutty said. As soon as Tissa Kuttyarachchi said this, a few members of the back row of Pohottuwa started telling the same story that Tissa Kuttyarachchi told, so it became clear to many that it happened in some organized way.
Can’t go on like this
Accordingly, Dinesh, who immediately responded to Tissa Kutty’s request, took a step back and sent the officers out of the room to allow the MPs to comment. Accordingly, the Tissa Kuttiya was the first to comment.
The government tells us to come to that, to come to this, to raise your hand to that, to raise your hand to this, to vote for that bill, to vote for this bill. We have been doing them for so long. But despite these delays, some ministers in the government are working just like we are left to the MPs in the opposition. That’s why we are not ready to work like this anymore. We know about ministers who treat us like this. And we know how to treat them. That’s why Prime Minister. We are ready to beat their budgets. When Tissa Kutti said, ‘You should go and tell the government people about this.’ Sumit said about the injustice done to MPs in providing foreign jobs.
‘Now they are sending people from here to work abroad. No one knows how to send it. We also took lists to send people for these jobs. But no one has been sent to the country yet. The news is that they have been sent outside.’ When Sumit said, Geeta, who is a state minister, also said that due to this job problem, she cannot even go to the village now.
In this way, when the back row MPs continued to point out the problems within the government to the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister said that after the President comes, he will discuss this and work to provide solutions.
However, one thing is clear from what happened in this discussion. As we said earlier, Pohottuwa is ready to take a tough decision at a critical moment regarding the future of the government.