COLOMBO – Sri Lanka former President and former leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga ceremoniously opened the headquarters of a new political party named the Nawa Lanka Nidahas Pakshaya or the New Lanka Freedom Party (NLFP) on Monday (5).
An offshoot of the SLFP, the NLFP is headed by former SLFP stalwart and Kalutara district MP Kumara Welgama who has said the party would implement programs to train youth under the age of 40 and take steps to establish a corruption-free youth-led political movement in the future.
The party headquarters is located in Battaramulla, a suburb of Colombo. It was registered and officially listed in the Election Commission’s list of registered political parties on January 10.
Welgama, who contested the 2020 parliamentary election on the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) ticket, but has since been functioning independently in Parliament, formed the NLFP on March 6 2020, claiming it was seeking to uphold the now forgotten Bandaranaike policies. At the time Welgama claimed he was forming the new party because the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) created by the late S.W.R.D Bandaranaike of which he had been a member had become a sell-out in recent times.
Long known as a vocal critic of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Welgama opposed Gotabaya’s candidacy at the 2019 presidential election. However, the MP was one of the politicians subject to retaliatory mob violence on May 9, after supporters of the government launched an unprovoked attack on peaceful anti-government protestors.
Known for his close relations with former President Kumaratunga, whose father’s party, the SLFP, has significantly weakened in recent years, Welgama recently told a TV interview that he is also keen to bring in Kumaratunga’s son, Vimukthi Kumaratunga, to active politics.
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