Maithripala says Ranil, Sajith incapable of meeting UPFA challenge, JVP irrelevant

September 11, 2012, 10:07 pm

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By Shamindra Ferdinando

SLFP General Secretary Minister Maithripala Sirisena yesterday said that Saturday’s election result proved beyond doubt that both, UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Reformists’ leader, Sajith Premadasa were incapable of reviving the ailing party.

Addressing the media at the Mahaweli Centre yesterday, the Polonnaruwa District MP said that MP Premadasa, too, was a failure. A smiling Sirisena said that the Hambantota parliamentarian had moved to the North Central Province in the run-up to the Sept. 8 election as he believed the ongoing drought in the region could come to the UNP’s rescue. "Premadasa was based in Polonnaruwa," the minister said.

The UNP Deputy Leader also skipped the party’s 66th anniversary celebrations. The MP issued a statement regretting his inability to attend the function at Sirikotha as he was busy with the campaign in the North Central Province.

"Both, UNP and JVP strategists believed the North Central Province could be won comfortably due to the crisis caused by the drought," he remarked.

Minister Sirisena asserted that the UNP should look for a new leader as both Wickremesinghe and Premadasa couldn’t take up the UPFA challenge. The SLFP General Secretary said that the JVP was a spent force. The Marxist party was incapable of conducting even a provincial council polls campaign. The JVP did nothing except for putting up posters, the minister said, pointing out that the failure on the part of the Opposition to invite defeated presidential candidate, Gen (retd) Sarath Fonseka on stage exposed all of them. The minister said that the Opposition was struggling primarily due to ongoing internal power struggle. General Fonseka’s absence on the Opposition stage highlighted the failure on the part of senior Opposition figures to settle their differences.

Minister Sirisena said that the so-called Reformists’ campaign, too, had caused irrevocable damage to the ongoing UNP efforts to revive the party. The MP said that a hapless Wickremesinghe had been struggling on the political front due to the likes of Sajith Premadasa undermining him.