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Rajapaksa loyalists to form new party with Mahinda at the helm
View(s):Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) dissidents are to form their own party with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as their leader.
However, a decision is yet to be made on the name which may be similar to the SLFP. The decision to form their own party was taken on Thursday when the committee named by Mahinda Rajapaksa to study matters arising out of the suspension of his loyalists met at their office in Nelumpokuna Road, Battaramulla.
The committee comprises Basil Rajapaksa, Dullas Allahapperuma, Pavithra Wanniaratchchi, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, G.L. Peiris and Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena. The new party, according to sources familiar with the measures being taken, will begin consultations with all other political parties to form a “Common Front.” This, however, will not mean the end of the “Joint Opposition” these sources said adding that they would function as a body within Parliament.
There is still a debate over whether their new measures would be made public on September 4 when the Sri Lanka Freedom Party headed by President Maithripala Sirisena will hold its annual sessions in Kurunegala. There is already a move by a group of SLFP parliamentarians to declare their wish to sit separately and demand that they be treated as the main Opposition. Whether both these measures will play out together is unclear.