UPFA coalition partners want MR to lead election campaign

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Some coalition partners of the UPFA who organised the Nugedoda rally to urge former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to re-enter politics and lead the UPFA election campaign to victory said they have got the green light from the former President and that he cannot ignore the massive response made by party supporters at the rally.

The former President's message sent to the rally was a clear indication of his willingness to return to politics. The four prime objectives of organising the Nugegoda rally were to convince the public that the country is in danger, bring former President Mahinda Rajapaksa back to politics, urge the former President to re-enter

politics and give a strong signal to the SLFP party hierarchy to nominate the former President as the UPFA Prime Ministerial candidate, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya Leader and Western Provincial Councillor Udaya Gammanpila told the Sunday Observer.

“We have already got a positive response for the first three requests. But we are yet to get a response from the SLFP leadership for our fourth request. We hope the party hierarchy would not turn down this request and respond positively to the massive demand by the SLFP grass roots movement at the rally to nominate the former President as the UPFA Prime Ministerial candidate. We are ready to take our next step based on that decision,” he said.

Gammanpila said that they would organise more rallies, Sathyagraha and agitation campaigns to show the SLFP leadership the grass roots response to the former President's proposed re-entry into politics.

We have commenced collecting one million signatures from the people to further endorse this message. “The former President would decide whether he would contest the election or not. It is entirely up to the voters to accept or reject him.”

MEP Leader MP Dinesh Gunawardena told the Sunday Observer that they planned to organise the next rally in Kurunegala or Kandy. We will take forward this Movement because this is a movement of the UPFA supporters which witnessed a historic gathering at Nugegoda.

We will press for the completion of the hundred-day program and also educate people on the failures of the Government in terms of restoring good governance and managing the economy. The SLFP rank and file is already with us in this movement.

Except for the party hierarchy, there is no big issue with the SLFP.

There is an ongoing dialogue within the UPFA about its political strategy for the future, he said.

MP Gunawardena said after the Nugegoda rally, the Government has got political fever and launched a witch-hunt against its political opponents. At the rally, we explained our strategy to move forward as an anti-UNP political force of the UPFA. The unprecedented crowd at the rally fully endorsed our position.

“We don't want to create any divisions within the SLFP. Nearly 5.8 million people reposed their unwavering faith in former President Rajapaksa at the last Presidential election. They also voted for us to be in Parliament as a part of the UPFA.

But the people never gave us a mandate to join hands with the UNP”, he said.

Democratic Left Front Leader MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara told the Sunday Observer that they are getting a feedback from UPFA Provincial Councillors, Pradeshiya Sabha and Urban Council members about their initiative.

We have asked them to get together and exchange views to meet the UNP challenge.

We have planned to organise similar rallies in each province and the main capitals. We would further strengthen our mechanism to keep the people's movement alive and effective.