There are only two names in Sri Lankan politics that have been created using English initials. One is J.R. and the other is J.V.P. “J.R.” refers to Junius Richard, while the J.V.P., in English, stands for the People’s Liberation Front. By this logic, it should be abbreviated as P.L.F., but it was the J.V.P. name that was popularized in Sinhala by its founder, Wijeweera. Wijeweera made these initials famous across the island with the 1971 insurrection. He had initially helped Mrs. Bandaranaike’s coalition to come to power in 1970. However, after gaining power, the coalition, which comprised the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party leaders, failed to implement the promised socialist economic policies. It was this betrayal that led Wijeweera to launch the 1971 uprising. The government, led by Mrs. Bandaranaike, ruthlessly crushed the insurrection and imprisoned Wijeweera without mercy.
In 1977, when J.R. came to power, he released Wijeweera. But in 1983, following the July riots, J.R. banned the J.V.P., accusing Wijeweera of inciting the violence. In response, the J.V.P. launched a patriotic uprising against J.R.’s government, particularly opposing the Indo-Lanka Accord. As the country burned due to this revolt, Anura Bandaranaike, heir to the Bandaranaike legacy, requested J.V.P. support for his mother, the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), to become President. In the 1988 presidential election, Mrs. Bandaranaike contested from the SLFP, while J.R.’s government fielded Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa as their candidate. The J.V.P. first assassinated the UNP’s General Secretary and Chairman and bombed Parliament, significantly destabilizing the government. They terrorized UNP members, local UNP leaders, and government-appointed officials by wielding T-56 rifles. Wijeweera, recognizing that his long-standing enemy, Mrs. Bandaranaike, and her SLFP, would be the main beneficiaries of this destruction, turned his guns on her, confident that she would win the 1988 presidential election. He never forgave her for imprisoning him and trying to destroy his party. Ultimately, it was Ranasinghe Premadasa who became president, not Mrs. Bandaranaike. Wijeweera not only aimed to destroy Mrs Bandaranaike but also targeted her son, Anura, heir to the Bandaranaike political dynasty.
Despite Premadasa knowing that Wijeweera had indirectly helped him win, he invited Wijeweera to join his government. However, Wijeweera, seeing Premadasa as a weak leader, launched another revolt against his government. Premadasa’s regime, led by State Defense Minister Ranjan Wijeratne, crushed the uprising with brutal force, supported politically by Ranil Wickremesinghe. Premadasa offered no resistance to this suppression. During the crackdown, Wijeweera and the entire J.V.P. politburo were assassinated.
By 1994, although Wijeweera had eliminated Mrs. Bandaranaike and her son Anura from the political landscape, the J.V.P. supported Chandrika’s rise, driven by their enmity with the UNP, which had crushed their party and leaders. After the SLFP was defeated in the 2001 general election, the J.V.P. rejoined the SLFP and in 2005 formed a government under Chandrika’s leadership. However, the J.V.P. soon distanced themselves from the SLFP and fueled opposition to Chandrika, bringing the Bandaranaike dynasty’s political influence to an end. The J.V.P. then chose Mahinda Rajapaksa as their preferred leader to carry forward the SLFP legacy.
Mahinda won the 2005 presidential election largely due to the J.V.P.’s support. Even though many SLFP ministers and MPs allied with the Bandaranaikes tried to undermine him, Mahinda’s victory was carried by the J.V.P. against all odds. Although the J.V.P. expected recognition for their role in his success, Mahinda distanced himself from them and instead broke the party apart by recruiting J.V.P. superstar Wimal Weerawansa. The J.V.P. was left in a weakened and helpless state.
By 2008, the J.V.P. had parted ways with Mahinda. Since then, their influence began to decline. In the 2004 general election, the J.V.P. had won 39 seats, but by the 2010 general election, they managed to win only three or four, and even those were due to their alliance with Sarath Fonseka. From then on, the J.V.P.’s voter base dropped to just 3%.
The J.V.P. only began to regain prominence during the 2022 “Aragalaya” (the people’s uprising). Though the uprising was not initiated by the J.V.P., but rather by the breakaway Frontline Socialist Party and a wave of Facebook youth activism, they lacked a clear leader. It was Anura Kumara Dissanayake who filled this leadership vacuum. In reality, the J.V.P. hijacked the “Aragalaya.” In the 2019 presidential election, Anura had secured only 3% of the vote, but by hijacking the uprising, he has positioned himself as a viable contender for the 2024 presidential election. He will face Sajith Premadasa, the son of Ranasinghe Premadasa, and Namal Rajapaksa, the son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, in the race.
In 1988, state power was within the J.V.P.’s grasp, but Premadasa snatched it away. Wijeweera, instead of mending his enmity with Mrs Bandaranaike, paved the way for Premadasa’s rise with his strategy. In the 2005 presidential election, the J.V.P. once again stood on the brink of power. In the 2004 general election, they had pushed Anura, the Bandaranaike heir, down the Gampaha list, elevating their leader, Vijitha Herath. They wielded significant power within the SLFP. However, the J.V.P. lacked the wisdom to assess their true potential. They were afraid to field their candidate for the presidential election. Instead, they assumed they could manipulate Mahinda, who they believed to be a weak leader and take control of the government. But the J.V.P. was wrong. Just as Premadasa outmanoeuvred them in 1988, Mahinda also outplayed them in 2005.
In 1988-89, as Wijeweera launched his uprisings, Anura was a student activist. Having grown up politically in the shadow of Wijeweera, Anura was a child of the same political fire.
Wijeweera must have wondered, as he was taken to the golf course to be shot, what madness had led him to defeat Mrs. Bandaranaike, only to pave the way for Premadasa’s victory. Similarly, when Mahinda dismembered the J.V.P. after they had helped him become president, the J.V.P. leaders, including Somawansa Amarasinghe, must have wondered what depths they had sunk to. The J.V.P. never had a chance to reverse their deals with Premadasa and Mahinda.
In 2024, however, fate has granted Anura the chance that the J.V.P. had lost. This time, he faces the sons of Premadasa and Mahinda, Sajith and Namal. Anura, on behalf of the J.V.P., seeks revenge, not through bullets from a T-56 rifle, but through the ballot box.
