was no meaning in having an Opposition leader whose own MPs were holding ministerial positions in the government

Anger of UPFA Ratnapura elected reps boils over national govt.

March 25, 2015, 10:36 pm 

By Kamal Bogoda

UPFA Ratnapura District MP Janaka Wakkumbura said yesterday that there was no meaning in having an Opposition leader whose own MPs were holding ministerial positions in the government.

 Addressing a press conference at Abhayaramaya in Narahenpita Wakkumbura said that it was wrong for the UPFA members to accept ministerial portfolios in the new government.

 "The so-called 100-day programme is in a shambles. It seems that our colleagues who accepted ministerial portfolios in the new government will have to whitewash the current regime and they will be employed to justify he failure of the 100-day programme," he said.

 Wakkumbura and Ratnapura District UPFA MPs, Provincial council and local authority members had met former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the same venue earlier in the day.

 A large number of UPFA MPs were ready to ensure that a new opposition would replace the current one in Parliament, Wakkumbura said.

 He said that UPFA supporters had been assaulted, harassed and sacked from their jobs by the UNPers soon after Maithripala Sirisena became the President. "So, how can we join such a government? Who will dare to support the UNP to form a national government when our supporters are subjected to numerous harassments?"

 The MP said that at the grassroots level the people and electorates were demanding that former President Rajapaksa be fielded as the UPFA prime ministerial candidate at the forthcoming general election.

Rantapura District MP Ranjith Zoysa: "We are organising Ratnapura rally on Thursday not for anyone else, but for our leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. We all will attend it. We also call upon Ratnapura people to attend this meeting in their numbers." Zoyza said that Parliament had become a mockery as there was no clear division between the government and the Opposition. Polonnaruwa District MP Roshan Ranasinghe and Colombo District MP Gamini Lokuge also addressed the media.