Tussle begins to garner Parliamentarians’ support for Ranil Wickremesinghe

• 92 Parliamentarians, mostly from SLPP met RW last evening and pledged their support to him
• These figures could be higher as some MPs are overseas  
• Pohotuwa candidate will be announced in coming days  
• MPs from the pro Wickremesinghe camp in the SLPP said that they will look at holding discussions with MR in coming days, hoping to reverse SLPP’s decision to field its own candidate  

By JAMILA HUSAIN  

Days after President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced his candidacy in the September Presidential Election, 92 Parliamentarians, mostly from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) met Wickremesinghe last evening and pledged their support to him.  

In the Government Parliamentary Group meeting that convened last evening, MPs in support of Wickremesinghe said they accepted the President’s economic vision and pledged their support to work with him.  

State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe told Daily Mirror that at least 60 MPs from the SLPP had attended the meeting and pledged their support to Wickremesinghe but these figures could be higher as some MPs were overseas.   

Semasinghe said that the prime focus of the Parliamentarians was to ensure Wickremesinghe’s victory in the upcoming Presidential Election while other senior sources from the party said that the MPs were also now looking at forming a broad alliance with Wickremesinghe in the coming weeks.   

The SLPP, which is the main party that has contributed towards the successful implementation of Wickremesinghe’s economic policies, and which has 89 Parliamentarians in the House is now however left divided in two camps with one camp, which has the majority MPs, pledging their support for President Wickremesinghe while the other camp has decided to field its own candidate.  

Although the SLPP Politburo decided to field its own candidate at the Presidential Election, after it convened on Monday evening, the pro Wickremesinghe camp of the SLPP is however hopeful that the SLPP Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa will reconsider this decision.   

Last afternoon, Semasinghe held a media briefing and claimed that the SLPP had made a wrong decision to field its own candidate and said such a decision was against the majority opinion of the party.  

Sources from the pro Wickremesinghe camp in the SLPP said that they will look at holding discussions with Rajapaksa in the coming days and will remain hopeful for a positive outcome to reverse the SLPP’s decision to field its own candidate.  

On Monday evening, just shortly after the SLPP Politburo committee decided not to support Wickremesinghe, it is learnt that 30 SLPP MPs who met Wickremesinghe and pledged their support to him began immediate discussions on Wickremesinghe’s campaign strategy and how they would proceed forward to begin work in the ground level in all districts. 

Till last evening, six notable SLPP MPs - Ali Sabry, Premitha Bandara Tennakoon, Kanchana Wijesekera, Shehan Semasinghe, S.M. Chandrasena and Bandula Gunawardena had publicly pledged their support to the President through statements on their social media and through media conferences.  

While the pro Wickremesinghe SLPP camp maintains that there are around 60 MPs who pledge support for Wickremesinghe, the anti Wickremesinghe camp however says these numbers may drop in the coming weeks.   

Last Sunday Wickremesinghe visited Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa at Mahinda’s official residence in Wijerama Road in Colombo and sought his and his party’s support. Mahinda had in return informed Wickremesinghe that it was up to the party to decide on it and they would convey their answer soon.  

Subsequently on Monday evening, when the SLPP Politburo convened its meeting, heated arguments erupted between the pro and anti Wickremesinghe camps. 32 SLPP Parliamentarians were present at the meeting while members from the SLPP trade unions and professionals were also present. 11 MPs which included Kanchana Wijesekera, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, S.B. Dissanayake, Kokila Gunawardena, Kanaka Herath, Pradeep Udungoda, Sahan Pradeep, Bandula Gunawardena, Prasanna Ranatunga, Ramesh Pathirana and Mohan Priyadarshana. spoke in favour of Ranil Wickremesinghe while the other remaining MPs had alleged that Wickremesinghe had split up the party by approaching SLPP MPs individually and bypassing the party leadership on several instances. However the pro Wickremesinghe camp had said it was not suitable to field a candidate from the Pohotuwa as this would split up the votes and therefore would result in neither candidate winning the Presidential Election. Concerns were also raised that the SLPP MPs would lose their power with the people if they lost their portfolios to which some trade unions argued if they were not willing to sacrifice their ministries.  

Heated arguments continued for a while after which the politburo decided that they would field their own candidate and would make a decision on him/her soon.  

The coming weeks will be very crucial for the SLPP. As at least 60 MPs have decided to go with Wickremesinghe, questions now arise as to who the anti Wickremesinghe camp will field to contest under the Pohotuwa symbol.  

Senior sources said that no final decision has so far been taken on who will be selected as the Pohotuwa candidate and a decision will be announced in the coming days.  

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Parliamentarians meeting President to pledge their support to him