The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has no plans to re-admit its former ministers who left the party during the last Presidential election campaign, said SLPP member Sanjeewa Edirimanna.
He reiterated the position first expressed by SLPP leader and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a rally in Anuradhapura, where he said that those MPs would not be welcomed back.
Edirimanna said so yesterday when asked whether the SLPP would consider accepting back MPs who defected during the Presidential election to support the then President Ranil Wickremesinghe, but are now reportedly looking to return to their original party.
He said that Rajapaksa’s prediction that some of these defectors, including stalwarts such as Prasanna Ranatunga, would eventually seek to rejoin the SLPP had come true.
The group of defectors in question, who joined former President Wickremesinghe’s campaign under the gas cylinder symbol, includes politicians such as former Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, former ministers Prasanna Ranatunga, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Shehan Semasinghe, Ramesh Pathirana, Kanchana Wijesekara, Pramitha Thennakon, Ali Sabry, S.B. Dissanayake, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Bandula Gunawardhana, Susil Premajayantha, and Vidura Wickramanayake.
Edirimanna said that the SLPP had learned from media reports and various other sources that most of the defectors who left the party are now expressing a desire to return to the SLPP. This development comes in the backdrop that the United National Party (UNP) is working to form a coalition with the Sajith Premadasa-led Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).
Prasanna Ranatunga said that there is nothing wrong with the United National Party (UNP) forming a coalition with the Sajith Premadasa-led Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), as both groups originally belonged to the same party.
He said that he and his colleagues are not interested in joining the SJB, but are instead returning to their “left-leaning roots” in the SLPP, where they still support Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom he credited for ending Sri Lanka’s civil war.
Edirimanna added that while there have been no formal requests from any defectors to rejoin the SLPP, any such requests would be reviewed by the party before any decision is made. However, until such a request is received, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s earlier stance remains unchanged.
