‘There will be no rapprochement between SLPP and dissidents’

 By Shamindra Ferdinando

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader and MP Udaya Gammanpila has denied reports that he had talks with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, MP, recently.Gammanpila rejected as baseless a claim that he had discussed with Rajapkasa the IMF bailout and the move to privatise profit-making state enterprises.

“I haven’t met Mr. Rajapaksa for about one year,” Gammanpila told The Island.

He said a social media platform was spreading a rumour that he and NFF leader Wimal Weerawansa were trying to iron out differences with the SLPP.In March 2022, the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa sacked both Gammanpila and Weerawansa after they moved the Supreme Court against the Yugadanavi deal with a US energy company, New Fortress Energy.

MP Gammanpila alleged that interested parties were trying to divert public attention away from real issues by propagating lies. “Unsubstantiated claims pertaining to divisions within the Opposition are obviously part of the government strategy,” MP Gammanpila said.

Both Gammanpila and Weerawansa represent the recently formed Uththara Lanka Sabhagaya, which consists of SLPP constituents and those SLPP members who quit the government parliamentary group last July.

MP Weerawansa said that the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa dispensation was working overtime to mislead the public. Responding to another query, Weerawansa said that there hadn’t been any discussions with Mahinda Rajapaksa.

SJB MP Mujibur Rahuman, who resigned from Parliament to contest for the post of Colombo Mayor, told The Island that the government was carrying out a propaganda campaign to dupe the public.

Rahuman said there was no truth in the government’s claim that some Opposition MPs were trying to join it. Having postponed scheduled Local Government polls, the government was on a collision course with the judiciary, Rahuman said.

The continuing controversy over the proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill and accusation that the government had misinterpreted a Bill pertaining to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka underscored the crisis it was in. “Who would want to join President Wickremesinghe unless he or she expected personal benefits?” he asked

Four of the SJB’s 54 MPs have so far switched their allegiance to President Wickremesinghe. National List MPs Dayana Gamage and Harin Fernando and elected MPs Manusha Nanayakkara and A. Aravindh Kumar have received ministerial portfolios.