SLFP launches member recruitment campaign

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 September 2003, 16:26 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), chief constituent of the main Opposition Peoples Alliance (PA) Sunday launched a house-to-house campaign to strengthen its grass root level organizations the day after the collapse of the talks with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), party sources said.

The leader of the opposition in the present parliament Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday launched this campaign at his own electorate Beliatta, deep south of the country. The aim of the campaign is to recruit more members to the party, he said.

During talks with the JVP to form an alliance, some senior members of the SLFP had expressed deep concern that the JVP was encroaching and attempting to take over the SLFP grass root level organizations. Even the trade unions of the SLFP were under threat as JVP elements had infiltrated, sources said.

Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse said that the house-to-house campaign has been launched to make the party more vigorous and bring back the party popularity to a peak as it did in 1956 when the party was founded by later Prime Minister Mr.S.W.R.Bandaranaike.