About half of the UNP parliamentary group is supportive of a bid to influence UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to quit the leadership to pave the way for a general revamping of the party.

In a brief interview with The Sunday Island, Ms Thalatha Atukorale, MP,

expressed confidence that the leader would step down to facilitate the party to elect his successor without further delay.

"We aren’t pushing for anyone and there is absolutely no hidden agenda. We simply want to revitalize the party to take on the dictatorial Rajapaksa regime," she said.

Responding to our queries, the elder sister of the late UNP General Secretary Gamini Atukorale said last Thursday’s quit call was made on behalf of the majority of the parliamentary group. She has joined Lakshman Seneviratne, Johnston Fernando and Indika Bandara Thursday morning at Cambridge Terrace where they asked him to step down.

Interestingly, Fernando and Seneviratne had been two of Wickremesinghe’s strongest supporters when Sajith Premadasa spearheaded a bid to initiate far reaching changes in the party in the immediate aftermath of the April 2004 parliamentary elections defeat.

"Mr. Wickremesinghe was alone," she said, adding that at the Working Meeting which followed their pow-wow, Wickremesinghe agreed to finalize a range of reforms within two weeks. She said about 18 MPs were committed to their campaign.

She dismissed reports they wanted UNP Chairman Rukman Senanayake to succeed Wickremesinghe. According to her there were interested parties bent on sabotaging their bid.

"Let me assure, we aren’t batting for anyone. What we expect is an immediate change in the party constitution to allow the party to select its leader," she said.

She strongly rejected a protest campaign to pressure Wickremesinghe to hand over the leadership. She emphasized that the need was to bring in a new leadership to re-build the party, give confidence to the supporters and take on the Rajapaksa challenge.

The SLFP-led coalition had absolutely nothing to brag about except the war waged on the LTTE, she said. What the top leadership had unfortunately failed to realize was the Rajapaksa’s total dependence on the battlefield success of the combined security forces.

``Had the leadership grasped that, the outcome of recent PC elections to North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces would have been different,’’ she said.

Commending Wickremesinghe’s leadership in the electoral victory over the UPFA in late 2001, she said a leadership change was necessary to breathe life into the party.

"We cannot continue to remain in the opposition as negligence will only strengthen the Rajapaksa administration."

She said the UNP was firmly behind the security forces. "We want to see an end to scourge of terrorism," she said, expressing confidence the Rajapaksas could be defeated and a UNP government brought into power.

They wouldn’t be able to market the war and exploit battlefield field success forever, she said. Waste, corruption and sky rocketing cost of living due to mismanagement of the economy would force the masses to yearn for a change of government.

She said Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene, too, has echoed their position when he met the party leader on Friday. UNP leader Rukman Senanayake has been present on this occasion.

She said that this time they wouldn’t stop halfway. "We’ll continue until we realize our objective."