The JVP yesterday said the SLFP was attempting to convert the Provincial Councils into ‘variga sabhas’ by fielding the kith and kin of powerful politicos. This attempt at promoting nepotism must be defeated otherwise it would lead to a feudalistic crisis in the country, JVP Parliamentary Group Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said yesterday.

Addressing a press conference at the National Library and Documentation Center, he said a simple glance at the lists of UPFA candidates for the August 23 Sabaragamuwa and North Central Provincial Council polls was enough to show that the SLFP’s plan was to get the relatives of their politicians elected so that they could continue with corruption and waste of public funds. "Powerful SLFP politicos in both provinces had fielded their sons, cousins, husbands, siblings and uncles in the fray," Dissanayake said.

The President, who is the Head of the State, is unable take any measure against this and the discrimination caused by nepotism because he himself had set a wrong example by appointing a large number of his relatives to various high positions in the Government, he said.

"Recently, we heard the President saying that only one member of a family would be given an opportunity to contest the polls. But, how about the example he had set?"

In the Sabaragamuwa Province, the son and son-in-law of Labour Minister Athauda Seneviratne are on the UPFA list, he said. Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya’s cousin, son of Consumer Affairs Minister H. R. Mithrapala, husband and uncle of Youth Affairs Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, the brother in law of non-Cabinet Minister Premalal Jayasiri, the son and son-in-law of Irrigation Minister Jayatissa Ranaweera, and son of SLFP former MP Heenmahattya Jayatilleka are listed under the UPFA.

In the North Central Province, the brother of Nation Building Minister S. M. Chandrasena, father of Petroleum Resources Minister Duminda Dissanayake and the sister of Indigenous Medicine Minister Tissa Karaliyadda are contesting the August 23 PC polls under UPFA ticket.

"The President and his Government have a ten-year plan to cling into power. Fielding their family members is aimed at supporting this plan. The President also plans to leave power in the hands of his family members. Soon we will be having Variga Sabhas instead of Palaath Sabhas (Provincial Councils). Anyone can understand what will happen when a group of relatives are given powers and the keys to the coffers. This enables further corruption and swindling of public funds. People must realize this and must defeat these family members at the elections," MP Dissanayake said.