Mangala Samaraweera, during his days with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, held sway in the Matara district. Even after quitting the party, many believed that he could hold his own against any opposition there.

But all that seems to be changing now.

Samaraweera, who formed the SLFP (M) and together with the JVP, TNA and other minor parties joined the UNP to form the UNF, seems to have antagonised the voting population of Matara.

Samaraweera, who leads the UNF charge in Matara, may find to his dismay that he has made a mistake too many.

UNPers in the district have not forgotten how he plotted the party’s downfall at the last general elections and slung mud at their leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe. Many of them are not happy with his ploy to bring the JVP and UNP together prior to the recent presidential polls.

SLFPers have lost faith in him due to his desertion of the President at a critical stage of the war against terrorism and for supporting the UNF.

Meanwhile the JVP supporters have got chased off as he has stayed on with the UNF and left their party to fend for themselves.

Political analysts say that Mangala is now finding the going tough in his one-time domain and he has suffered a severe setback to his ambitions with a number of his trusted lieutenants deserting him to support the UPFA. The worst blow to him was his one-time trusted lieutenant Sripathi Suriyarachchi’s widow, who was due to contest on the UNP ticket, throwing her support behind the UPFA.