Move afoot to make Kumaratunga UNP MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 July 2010, 11:05 GMT]
Moves are afoot by the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to make Chandrika Kumaratunga a Member of Parliament through the UNP list, political sources in Colombo said. The move has been reportedly initiated by a splinter group of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), led by Mangala Samaraweera.

Talks between Samaraweera and UNP leaders are reported to have begun in this regard.

This move is said to cause split in the ruling UPFA as some die-hard SLFP parliamentarians were threatening to withdraw their support extended to Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa, who won the race with Wikramasinghe in 2005, dissappointed Samaraweera, who was in charge of the election campaign, by appointing him as foreign minister instead of the expected portfolio of prime minister.

Later, in February 2007, Samaraweera was sacked by Rajapaksa from the foreign minister portfolio. Samaraweera, together with former Port Development Minister, Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi, who was later sacked by Rajapaksa, launched the new Party, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Mahajana Wing), SLFP (M) in June 2007.