Crisis-hit Sri Lanka Freedom Party official accuses seniors of betrayal
COLOMBO — Tensions within the crisis-riddled Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) continue with the party’s acting general secretary now accusing party stalwarts of attempting to “betray” the party to its traditional rival the United National Party (UNP).
MP Dushmantha Mithrapala told reporters that the SLFP, as one of the country’s leading centre-left parties, must continue to exist and vowed to never allow its destruction.
“Some groups are trying to pin the SLFP on the UNP elephant’s tail, but the party members aren’t there. This leftist party should continue to exist in the country. A few people are trying to betray the SLFP to the UNP to retain their privileges,” he said.
SLFP members who left the party to join the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the party’s wider membership countrywide now have the opportunity to regroup and “rise strong as a party”, said Mithrapala.
“We will never allow the destruction of the SLFP,” he emphasized.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said once his faction has control of the SLFP, it’ll become a party that can form a government.
“Before a month, we’ll turn this party into one with 40 to 50 MPs after we take over. In the recent past, there has been not even a village-level organization and no party members either. We will turn this into a party that can form a government,” he said.
The SLFP last week appointed its incumbent vice president Nimal Siripala de Silva as the party’s acting chairman, amid much controversy. The appointment was made at a politburo meeting held on April 8, following the interim order from the Colombo District Court the previous week barring former President Maithripala Sirisena from serving as SLFP chairman.
Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, whose father S. W. R. D Bandaranaike founded the party in the 1950s, also hit out at Sirisena last week.
“When everyone asked me to run for president in 2015, I said no and brought in the SLFP general secretary, with great expectations. He ruined the country and the party too. That mistake was corrected today,” she said.
She charged that the party constitution was a mess, and attributed it to Sirisena’s actions as SLFP chairman.
“I will never leave the SLFP,” she said.
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