I won’t take revenge on anybody. When I took over the party from Chandrika there were only 57 parliamentarians. I increased it into 127, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

“Today we have 160 members in parliament. Few of them left us. The gate is still open. It is like a salon door anybody can go and come at anytime,” he said at the opening of the 101-kilometre stretch on the Anuradhapura-Trincomalee A-12 Road.

“Leaving the party is not a new thing. Quitting and joining the party has happened from 1964 when C.P.De Silva who was also from Minneriya in the Polonnaruwa District.

In another instance Charlie Edirisooriya who let down Sirimavo Bandaranaike had crossed over.

Even Chandrika let down Sirimavo and left the SLFP to form a new party, “Bahujana Nidahas Peramuna” he said. But I have always been with the party and had never left it.

“Those who left our party vanished but those entered it flourished,” the President said.

I have files on all who left. But I am not so cheap person as to open them. It is not advisable for them to throw stones while in glass houses, he said.