Won’t get down from SLPP stage: Wasantha

Foreign Affairs State Minister Wasantha Senanayake, who got onto the stage of SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa at Polonnaruwa, said he won't get down from the SLPP stage this time.

"I came here for a marriage, a marriage with the SLPP. I got on to the SLPP stage not to get down again," he said.

The State Minister, wearing a green coloured UNP cap, was brought to the stage by his supporters during Mr.Rajapaksa’s speech, bringing it to a halt.

Once on the stage, he was embraced by Mr. Rajapaksa amid people’s cheers and the State inister soon replaced the UNP cap with an SLPP one.

Speaking to the crowd, the State Minister said he didn't come empty-handed to the SLPP stage from the UNP.

“I brought with me the UNP Student Front and the entire Green Blood Organisation from the UNP. There are people who still venerate the Senanayakes in Kegalle, Ampara and Gampaha. In the coming days, I will tell all Senanayake-loving people that today’s UNP is not the party formed by the D.S. Senanayake. A grand elephant created by late D.S. Senanayake has been diluted under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s leadership,” he said.

The State Minister said the Senanayake policy was to improve agriculture but the Wickremesinghe policy was starkly different from the Senanayake policy.

He said presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa is his friend but is surrounded by Central Bank bond scammers and those accused of extremist terrorism.

The State Minister said the UNP has enough garbage but had imported two in the recent past. “One is the person who destroyed Mihin Lanka and the other is the one who tied people to trees. We don't want them. We have a long way to go, the country should be developed with a secure environment. Mahinda and Gotabaya combination can do this," he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla and K.G.Karunarathna)