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by Prasad Gunewardene

The bottle of "tippex" has a long history in the UNP. Fingers are pointed at the Moragoda-Maharoof combine over the 'tippexing' of T. M. Sanghadasa's name from the CMC nomination list. Milinda Moragoda is known to be an ardent supporter of the Bush administration in the United States. Mohamed Maharoof is a frequent visitor to the Middle East. Now UNPers have begun to crack that the combination was like 'CIA"-"Al Queda" entities within the party operating' mysteriously'.

The UNP has a history of 'tippexing' nomination lists. It was introduced in Colombo in 1994 when incumbent UNP leader was the district leader for the general election. The first name to be 'tippexed' was the name of Mrs. Hema Premadasa. The Former First Lady's name was in the list. But when she arrived at the Colombo Kachcheri, she found that her name had been 'tippexed' and replaced with Ratnasiri Rajapakse's name. She accused the UNP General Secretary, then Sirisena Cooray for plotting against her entry into politics. But Cooray claimed that Ranil Wickremesinghe had instructed him to delete her name stating that Mrs. Premadasa had decided to withdraw.

Now again under the leadership of Wickremesinghe, the bottle of "Tippex" has surfaced. Latest investigations reveal that party General Secretary, V. N. K. K. Weragoda is now to be blamed for not been available at the party headquarters to check the final list in the most important Colombo Municipal. Later, the list had been perused at M. H. Mohamed's residence by Azath Sally who had confirmed to a Sinhala daily that the names were quite intact when Mohamed received the list. Moragoda's secretary, Collure has denied any involvement, according sources close to the two member probe committee. Collure has also denied Mohamed's charge that patches of "Malayali Oil" were seen on the list when he handed it over to Mohamed at the latter's residence.

Meanwhile, Sirisena Cooray who was reintroduced into UNP politics by Moragoda and Maharoof has requested his confidante Sanghadasa to withdraw from battle. But Sanghadasa firmly backed by S. B. Dissanayake, Ravi Karunanayake and Rajitha Senaratne is unmoved by the request of Cooray. With the UNP list rejected and Cooray hanging in the balance over the contest, party loyalists question whether Cooray is playing a double game with an attempt to please Moragoda and Maharoof while his confidante Sanghadasa is left in the lurch.

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