National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa, MP said that the JVP’s relationship with the UNP was having a devastating impact on the party. Addressing a press conference at the Mahaweli Centre, the former JVP heavyweight said that nothing could be as bad as being pushed in to the fourth place in the Badulla district.

A section of the JVP leadership which had adopted a strategy similar to that of the UNP had ruined the party. The JVP had suffered a devastating setback in the Moneragala district. He warned his former colleagues that they would face a massive defeat in the Hambantota district too at the forthcoming elections to the Southern Provincial Council.

The breakaway group had done better than the JVP at the Uva elections. He said that their two candidates fielded in Moneragala and Badulla had comfortably secured slots in the council whereas the JVP had been reduced to just one member.

The government needed a massive victory at Uva as it was the first election after the total destruction of the LTTE last May. Major cracks had appeared in both UNP and JVP vote banks with Sinhala and Tamil speaking people throwing their weight behind the government, he said.

Minister Dallas Alahapperuma said that a section of the opposition had made a desperate attempt to play the communal card both at Uva and Vavuniya Urban Council elections. Some declared that an UPFA victory would transform the north of Anuradhapura and Vavuniya area to an open prison camp, but people didn’t take them seriously.