President and Team’s Strategies to Grab SJB MPs Repeatedly Fail
Dammika Leverages Computer Classes for Pohottuwa Candidacy
Politicians Chase Illusory Polls Amid Confidence Crisis
Iranian President Concludes Final Successful Official Visit
Kanchana Persists in Power Plays
Prasanna Ranatunga Holds Covert Meetings to Secure Ranil’s Presidential Bid
The last trump card
Since assuming the presidential role, Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe has employed various strategies to position himself as a candidate for the upcoming presidential election. His initial tactic involved orchestrating a split within the SJB, resulting in some members joining the government and being appointed as ministers. The President employed numerous manoeuvres to achieve this. Recently, several opposition MPs were enticed by these tactics and accepted ministerial positions within the government. The media frequently reported that large numbers of MPs were poised to join the government, but these claims never materialized, rendering this strategy ineffective.
After the first plan faltered, the President’s second approach aimed to lure minority leaders from the SJB, particularly Tamil and Muslim leaders, into the government. In a recent discussion with Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, the President mentioned efforts to attract these leaders. Last week, the ‘Inside Politics’ column detailed these efforts. Two key tactics were observed: establishing a world anti-war organization with figures like Rajitha Senaratne and Ravi Karunanayake, purportedly to support Palestine, and inviting Muslim leaders from the SJB to join this initiative. Mr Rishad Badiuddin participated in the initial discussion, but the absence of other Muslim leaders led to the initiative stalling.
The President’s second strategy involved constructing a museum in Kalmunai dedicated to M.H.M. Ashroff, a founding leader of the Muslim Congress, with a budget of 25 million rupees. This project aimed to gain the support of the eastern Muslim community and Mr. Rauf Hakeem, Ashroff’s close associate. However, this plan was derailed when Aman Ashroff, Ashroff’s son, publicly ridiculed the project on Twitter. He and his mother, former minister Ferial Ashroff, distanced themselves from the initiative, criticizing it as misguided. Aman Ashroff suggested that his father would have prioritized improving education, addressing agricultural and fisheries issues, and creating job opportunities for the youth in Digamadulla.
Consequently, the President’s second attempt to attract Muslim leaders to the government also failed
Digambaram has refused
However, it is not that the respective party leaders did not understand the plan of the Muslim Tamil MPs who are with SJB in this way. Accordingly, Digambaram, another minor party leader with SJB, held a conference call between these minor party leaders last week. Apart from Digambaram, Mano Ganesan, Rishad Badiuddin and Rauf Hakeem participated in this discussion. All three told Digambaram they would not join the government for any reason. A press conference was called to inform the country about it and all those people approved Digambaram. Accordingly, Digambaram issued a special press statement last Sunday, surprising the government and telling the country about this.
Shall I tell the truth? Four or five members of the party think that Ranil and Sajith should join forces. They are not going to leave. But they are spreading false propaganda saying that 15 will go or 20. But I know no one will. I am not going, Mano Ganesan is not going, Rauf Hakeem is not going, Radhakrishnan is not going, Rishad Badiuddin is not going, none of us are going. We are with Sajith and SJB. When a vote is approaching, they say they will come after Poya Day, they say they will take the stage on May Day, but no one goes. If someone leaves, their political future will be lost.
Everyone knows that Sajith will win. Everyone is on the winning side. We were in the opposition for five years. Do you mean to go back and stay in the opposition? Therefore, we know that SJB leader Sajith Premadasa will win the next election. I say it clearly…’
And in this speech, Digambaram revealed another special thing to the country. That is the statement made that four or five MPs who say they should join the government are in the party, but even so they will not join the government at all.
Deal MPs in crisis
We have reported this on many occasions in this ‘Inside Politics ‘ column. As the closest opportunity, we revealed last week from the column the discussion held in Mr Iran Wickramaratne’s office in Polhengoda. We mentioned that this discussion was called by Gampaha SJB MP Mr Kavinda Jayawardene, and MPs Harsha, Kabir, Iran, Rajitha, Ajith Mannapperuma, Rohini, J.C., Mayantha, Sujith Sanjay participated in it. Here we had reported that only the two MPs namely Rajitha and Ajith Mannapperuma said that they should go with the President, and the three members Harsha, Kabir and Iran strongly refused it. Accordingly, it is difficult for the people to understand who is in the position to go with the President.
In addition to this, two months ago we made another disclosure through this column about a certain businessman to started a factory for the production of alcohol. Even though this SJB MP is keeping his feet in both the government and the opposition, he is currently facing a big crisis. That is because they have taken many businessmen to the heads of the government and obtained various privileges, not only liquor licenses, saying that they will join the government. Accordingly, it is reported that this SJB MP has received a terrible message from a UNP strongman.
It is read in that message to join the government immediately without issuing various statements. It is said in the message that only two more weeks will be given for this, and if they do not join the government within those two weeks, the information of all the secret deals made with the government over the past period will be revealed to the country. Accordingly, it is known that this SJB MP is facing a serious crisis.
Is Elon Musk like Gates?
The President left for Bali, Indonesia last week to attend the World Water Summit. Before the start of this water conference, the president had met with various people and took steps to hold discussions. One person who met in this way was Mr. Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, who is among the few known billionaires. The media had reported that the President invited Elon Musk to visit Sri Lanka during this discussion, and that Elon Musk is going to come to Sri Lanka after accepting the President’s invitation. This news was given a lot of publicity by the government media as well as private media last week.
However, just like last year, news published by the government suddenly said that the world’s leading businessman, Microsoft owner Mr. Bill Gates, is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka in the middle of this year. Lankadeepa, a newspaper owned by the President’s family, was the first to reveal it to the country. There was a message like this.
Bill Gates to Sri Lanka next year
President Ranil Wickremesinghe is focusing on holding an international renewable energy conference in the middle of next year.
The President has entrusted Mr. Eric Solheim, the International Advisor on Climate Change, and Mr. Ruwan Wijayawardena, the President’s Senior Advisor, to organize all the related activities.
This decision was reached when Mr Eric Solheim and Mr Ruwan Wijayawardena met President Ranil Wickremesinghe and discussed it.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has informed Mr Eric Solheim to invite several leaders engaged in the world’s renewable energy sector to Sri Lanka. Mr. Ruwan Wijayawardena, Senior Adviser to the President on Climate Change, stated that he has planned to develop renewable energy in Sri Lanka in consultation with the officials of the main institutions coming to the conference.
It has also been decided to invite Mr. Bill Gates, a world-renowned businessman, to Sri Lanka and start a climate change management program together with him. In addition, it has also been decided to submit the Climate Change Act to Parliament in the first quarter of next year.
In this way, even though the government and Lankadeepa newspaper published a lie about Bill Gates coming to Sri Lanka, at least Bill Gates had not been invited by the government to come to Sri Lanka. Accordingly, it is too early to say whether Elon Musk’s trip to Sri Lanka will become another Bill Gates trip to Sri Lanka.
A game played by the bud
Last week, during the parliamentary session, a special incident that was not reported by the media took place inside the parliament. That is, the president came to the parliament and brought all the state ministers of the government and held several rounds of negotiations with them. In this discussion, the President advised to solve certain problems that have arisen in the Aswasuma project and informed the state ministers that they should take steps to complete all the development work before June 30. On one occasion earlier, Minister Prasanna Ranatunga had given notice to all the members of the ruling party to take steps to complete all the development works before the end of June.
However, why did the president suddenly call a meeting of state ministers in parliament? To some, it seemed like a normal meeting, but many pointed out that the President called such a meeting to disrupt the operation launched to reorganize Pohottuwa. Pohottuwa has even started an election operation office and has prepared plans to start his election campaign from Anuradhapura on the 26th. The President plans to prevent the group from organizing like this and weaken it and keep the group following him. The president has calculated that if Pohottu is organized strongly, it will create a big obstacle to his presidential candidacy as well as an opportunity to present a presidential candidate from Pohottuwa. Accordingly, many people point out that the emergency meeting of state ministers held in the parliament was planned by the president to prevent Pohottuwa from getting organized.
Prasanna get going
In addition to this, last week Minister Prasanna Ranatunga sent another special invitation to all Cabinet Ministers and State Ministers in Pohottuwa. All Cabinet and State Ministers of Pohottuwa are invited to a party held at Water’s Edge Hotel in Battaramulla on Monday. Prasanna had made this invitation to Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, who is considered to be the mastermind of Pohottuwa, without any information. Basil came to know about such a thing after asking Basil whether the ministers who were invited to the party would participate. There, Basil said that it was noted in the invitation that it would be held as a friendly meeting, so attend it. But until then, no one knew that this was the second part of the discussion that the President called the state ministers in the Parliament.
There is another reason behind inviting Cabinet and State Ministers to a party in this way. That is because another meeting between the President and Basil was to be held on Tuesday night. The President was scheduled to return to Sri Lanka on Tuesday after completing his visit to Indonesia and was scheduled to meet with Basil on the same night. Before this meeting, many people thought that the President planned to put some pressure on Basil during the discussion by inviting the cabinet ministers and state ministers of Pohottuwa to a party with Prasanna.
Mahindananda has come
However, although it was said that Prasanna had organized this party only for the cabinet and state ministers of Pohotuwa, Prasanna had invited certain special persons who did not belong to that group of the party. It is none other than Mr. Mahindananda Aluthgamage. Mahindananda is considered to be a Member of Parliament from Pohottuwa who is very friendly to the President despite the accusations made in the past. Mahindananda is also considered to be a member of the steering committee appointed by the President to target the elections. Accordingly, although they tried to show that this party was one of Pohottuwa, it is not difficult to understand that this was organized with the knowledge of the President through the invitation to Mahindananda.
At this party, which consisted of the highest quality sweets and food, some ministers started asking questions about the upcoming presidential election.
‘We are now between two worlds. We can’t even imagine what to do. Is the president running for the presidential election or not? If he is to come forward, he should announce it by now..” When the Cabinet Ministers and State Ministers questioned, Prasanna and Mahindananda answered.
‘No.. No.. Don’t worry.. The President is contesting the presidential election. He is currently preparing the necessary background for it. So you should also ask him about this at the cabinet meeting, at the government group meeting. Then the President will also answer that…’ Prasanna and Mahindananda were seen saying there.
Prasanna and Mahindananda informed them that they should go to the villages and start the campaign for the President. State Minister Sita Arambepola, who had been silent until then, was the first to speak with Prasannala’s story. Prasanna was not only moved by Sita’s speech, but other ministers spoke approvingly of Sita’s speech.
What is the meaning of that speech, Minister? You are telling us to start a campaign for the President. But the president has not yet said that he will come to the polls. So when we campaign for the President, if he does not come, we will be finished. “First of all, tell him whether you want to vote or not,” said Sita, while the other ministers spoke approvingly.
Accordingly, the party ended without a final agreement. While leaving the party, several ministers were heard to say, ‘I’m crazy… I’m having a meeting with only people.
Meanwhile, last Wednesday, the President called a special discussion in Parliament on behalf of the State Ministers.
However, by that night, Cabinet and State Ministers representing other parties in the government also came to know that a party was held at Water’s Edge only for Cabinet Ministers and State Ministers of Prasanna Pohottuwa. Accordingly, when they asked Prasanna about this, Prasanna said that they had also planned to organize a party in this way.
However, it did not take much time for the opposition MPs to hear that Prasanna Ranatunga had held a party for the cabinet and state ministers at the Waters Edge Hotel. Water’s Edge Hotel is a government-owned hotel. Malin Perera, the son of Bevan Perera, who is the chief organizer of UNP, acts as its chairman. Accordingly, the opposition has decided to investigate the cost of this party, whether the cost was paid, and if so, who paid the amount, etc.
Kanchana in a big work
Meanwhile, Kanchana Wijesekera, who is a cabinet minister of the government, has also done a great job these days. It is about organizing a massive rally in Matara in support of the President. Kanchana is considered to be a minister who is more friendly to the President than Pohottuwa. Although Kanchana planned to hold this meeting two months ago in Matara, Kanchana had to postpone it a little due to some reasons. But now it is reported that Kanchana has completed all arrangements to hold this meeting in Matara on the 16th. The President is also going to participate in it and the President will likely make the official announcement that he is contesting the presidential election at Kanchana’s Matara rally, according to reliable sources.
The secret of the Iranian president
Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi died in a helicopter accident last Sunday night. Generally, the Iranian President is not a very close character to the people of Sri Lanka, but due to his visit to Sri Lanka last month to inaugurate the Uma Oya project, some friendly feelings towards the Iranian President emerged in the minds of the Sri Lankan people. That is why the Iranians and the people of Sri Lanka were equally saddened by the sudden death of the Iranian president in the helicopter crash. Also, the Iranian President’s last foreign trip was to visit Sri Lanka to open Uma Oya.
However, this time we are pointing out through the ‘State Secrets’ channel about the revelation we made a month ago about how much attention the Iranian authorities had paid to the flights of the Iranian President during his visit to Sri Lanka. During the Israeli-Palestinian war, Iran went from a pro-Palestinian position to an open conflict with Israel. Because of this, the country’s security authorities had paid special attention to the flights of the Iranian president. During the time spent by the Iranian President in Sri Lanka, the security authorities of Sri Lanka had planned to bring him to Colombo by helicopter because he had to enter Sri Lanka and bring him back to Colombo.
However, the Iranian authorities had informed that the Iranian President would not engage in any helicopter travel within Sri Lanka. He also said that the President of Iran is coming to Katunayake from Mattala in his private plane. Accordingly, the Sri Lankan authorities had to completely close the Katunayake Expressway and many roads in Colombo for security reasons while bringing the Iranian President from Katunayake to Colombo and again from Colombo to Katunayake.
This is the revelation made by the ‘inside politics’ column on April 24.
‘Last week, the main topic in this country became the fact that thousands of people had to be stuck on the highway for hours due to the closure of the roads due to security reasons due to the closure of the roads due to the security reasons of the Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi who came to the island and opened the Umaoya project and left Sri Lanka. Although these facts were seen by the media, there was another big story behind the Iranian President’s visit to Sri Lanka that the media did not know about. To tell the truth, the government faced the Iranian President’s visit to Sri Lanka from a background similar to war.
The basic foundation for the Iranian President’s visit to Sri Lanka was laid during the President’s visit to America last year. The President had invited the Iranian President to visit Sri Lanka on his way to attend the United Nations General Assembly. Later, in a notification made by Iran, it was said that the Iranian President is ready to attend the opening of Umaoya. At that time, there was not much attention on Iran in world politics, so no problem had arisen. But as of last month, the Iranian president had become a topic of the world because Iran and America got involved in the Israeli-Palestinian war. Needless to say, in such an environment, ensuring the security of the Iranian President during his visit to Sri Lanka is a serious problem.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs faced the most serious problem. At this time, they initially thought that the visit would be suspended from Iran’s side because they could not tell the Iranian president not to visit Sri Lanka. But with the confirmation of the visit from the Iranian side, the next problem was how to provide security to the Iranian president. Especially since the Iranian side had given notice that the Iranian President would not make flights inside Sri Lanka under any circumstances, it was a very heavy task to provide security to the Iranian President by land route.
The biggest problem was to receive the Iranian President in a Katuna and take him to Umaoya. Then the Iranian security authorities asked which is the nearest airport to Uma Oya because they had to travel a long way by land. Mattala Airport came onto the scene after that. Accordingly, the Iranian security authorities informed that the President of Iran will come to Sri Lanka from there by land to join the opening ceremony of Umaoya.
However, the government somehow wanted to bring the Iranian president to Colombo and discuss with him and put on a big show. The reason for this is that the Iranian President is greatly appreciated by the Muslim people of this country due to his support for Palestine based on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Because some problems have arisen between the government and the Muslim community, the government hoped to get the support of the Muslim people to the government by organizing a meeting with the Iranian president in Colombo.
For this reason, the authorities of this country had to close the highway and the remaining roads for a very long time to bring the Iranian President from Mattala back to Colombo and to take the Iranian President along the Katunayake Expressway after the meeting with the President in Colombo. As a result, commuters had to be stuck in one place on the main roads for a long time last Wednesday, which was a weekday. Also, the Iranian security authorities had to bring the plane carrying the Iranian president to Katunayake.’
Latest poll
In the past, not only the politics of this country but also international politics, we have reported information from time to time on this channel about an opinion poll conducted by Dr. Ravi Rannan Eliya. There, we said that Rannan Eliya, who is considered to be someone who has conducted opinion polls in the field of politics or unknown in this country, had called 500 selected people over the telephone and conducted an opinion poll, through which the percentages of votes assumed to be received by the political parties in this country in the upcoming presidential election, and that a number have been declared.
In the first opinion poll, Rannan Eliya had given a high percentage of 39% to the JVP-led National People’s Force, while steps had been taken to give 27% to the United People’s Force and 10% to the UNP. Through that, Rannan Eliya had created an opinion that to defeat the JVP, the SJB and the UNP should unite. At that time, the government had given huge publicity and many of the people who claim to be expert political commentators in this country used the information of this opinion poll in their political articles without any investigation as to who this Rannan Eliya is and what he is doing.
No matter how many opinion polls are released to the media like this mushrooming as the elections are approaching, there are also opinion polls that are conducted in a very accurate, acceptable manner and with high accuracy. Often intelligence agencies and embassies, as well as internationally recognized opinion polling institutions, can be seen making certain predictions about the election results and conducting opinion polls in this way. They are not conducted by making phone calls to 100 to 200 people as Rannan Eliya did, but rather a sample of more than 5000 is selected to cover all groups such as provinces, districts, cities, gender, minor, old, youth, jobs, etc and known in the field as Queries. In the past, for the first time in the ‘state secret’ belt, we disclosed the information of a special opinion poll conducted by an international level institution with such responsibility.
According to this poll, it was very clearly revealed that in the upcoming presidential election, Sajaba led by Mr. Sajith Premadasa will get 39% of the votes, and the National People’s Force led by the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna will get almost 20% of the votes. It was revealed that Pohottuwa, who obtained a mandate of 69 lakhs in the last presidential election, will get 9% in this election, while President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s main United National Party will get only 5%. In addition to this, the most remarkable thing to see is that 24% of the voters have not yet made a final decision on who they will vote for, and no candidate has crossed the 50% threshold yet.
This well-known organization has conducted this poll without the North and East provinces. Leaving aside the vote in the North, if we talk about the Eastern Province, Rauf Hakeem and Rishad Badurdeen, who are in power there, are currently with Sajith. It is clear from this result that Sajith can easily get more than 50% of votes if he gets that percentage of votes and a certain percentage of votes in the north.
Done in Colombo
However, this time we are preparing to reveal through the ‘inside politics column’ the information of the latest opinion poll conducted last week by Dr. Professors and Lecturers of the University of Colombo. The results of this opinion poll, which had been conducted for a fee of 20 lakhs, were released last week, and it was stated that Sajith’s Samagi Jana Balavegaya is currently in the lead with 38% of the votes. It states that Anura, led by the National People’s Force, will hold 23% of the votes, while 21% have not yet made a decision. It further stated that the Rajapaksa’s Podujana Peramuna will get 8% of the votes, and the United National Party led by the President will get 7% of the votes. According to that, it also stated the same values as the opinion poll that the country we first uncovered.
Dhammika in Batticaloa
By opening an election operation office, Pohottuwa is now preparing to start his election operation from Anuradhapura on the 26th. Many people say that Dhammika Perera will enter the presidential race as the most likely candidate of Pohottuwa. Confirming that, Dhammika is now doing DP for children around the country. It can be seen that computer institutes are being opened. Marking another special step, Dhammika also visited the Eastern Province last week. That is another IT lab in Batticaloa. For opening 3 campuses. Another special person was also seen here with Dhammikat. It is none other than M.L.A.M. Hezbollah, the stalwart of Batticaloa. He also served as the Eastern Governor under the previous Rajapaksa government. Accordingly, many people say that Dhammika has started a decisive political journey by bringing together all parties as the candidate of Pohottuwa.
A reprimand from Sajith
Opposition leader Mr Sajith Premadasa convened a meeting with SJB MPs last week. During the meeting, he issued several key directives. Firstly, he emphasized that there is a prevailing notion that the SJB should collaborate with the President, but he firmly rejected any such proposals. Sajith highlighted survey data showing the SJB holding 41% of the vote, warning that aligning with the President could cause this support to plummet to 14%.
He also urged MPs to avoid internal conflicts and refrain from making divisive statements, even as the presidential election approached. Sajith stressed the importance of building a cohesive alliance for the elections and encouraged MPs to work together harmoniously, avoiding preferential disputes.
