Anura Bandaranaike passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 March 2008, 10:32 GMT]
Anura Bandaranaike, the brother of former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the son of two former Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka, passed away after brief illness at a private hospital in Colombo Sunday at 2:45 p.m. Mr. Bandaranaike, the 59-year-old son of the world's first woman prime minister, a former Foreign Minister and a former Opposition Leader, had walked away from the Sri Lankan parliament after crossing over to the opposition during the final voting of the latest Sri Lankan Budget in December 2007. His father, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, was assassinated by an extremist Buddhist monk when Mr. Anura Bandaranaike was 10 years old.

Anura Priyadarshi Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, a former student of Colombo Royal College was the youngest of the Bandaranaike family.

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa sidelined Anura Bandaranaike, who had earlier harboured ambitions of becoming the presidential candidate. Mr. Rajapaksa only offered the portfolio of Tourism.

Later, in a cabinet reshuffle, he also lost the tourism portfolio and continued as minister of national heritage.

In February 2007, he was sacked together with late Sripathi Sooriyaarachi and Mangala Samaraweera. But, later he reconciled with Mahinda Rajapaksa and was reappointed Minister for National Heritage, a portfolio he held until he sat with the opposition and walked away from the house during the final 2008 Budget voting.

Anura Bandaranaike, a former Speaker of the SL parliment, has mostly been associated with the opposition throughout his political carrier.

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