Behind Closed Doors

Racecourse deals, a Basil gamble and images on FB

by Rasputin Racecourse meeting

One does not need Einstein’s brains to understand that Susil Premajayantha and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, the General Secretaries of the UPFA and the SLFP respectively, played into the hands of Rajapaksa when it came to the election nominations. Although President Sirisena did not want to give nominations to nearly 20 ex-MPs of the party, Premajayantha and Yapa, worked hard to ensure nominations for the dirty and the corrupt.

Amid the heat of the nomination crisis, Premajayantha and Yapa met a strange person for a strange meeting at a strange place.

The place was a high-end restaurant at the former Colombo racecourse premises. Premajayantha and Yapa, who were heavily involved in the nomination process of the party, arrived at the restaurant around 2.30 pm on Wednesday.

It looked as if the two General Secretaries had come to the restaurant for a lunch-time rendezvous, probably to take a break from tiring nominations work.

Around 3.30 pm, a strange bedfellow joined them and he was none other than Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa.

The meeting lasted an hour and the three of them were seen having a very friendly discussion.

When the meeting took place, nominations for some close Namal Rajapaksa associates - namely Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Rohitha Abeygunawardena and Johnston Fernando - hung in the balance. Soon after the meeting however, the ex-MPs on the fence were informed by the party headquarters that UPFA nomination papers were waiting to receive their signatures!

Provincial Councillor in the lurch

Provincial Councillor Samanmalee Sakalasuriya had reportedly played a role in the campaign to bring former President Mahinda Rajapaksa back as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the UPFA. She made her contribution with the hope that she would get nomination to contest the Parliamentary election. She then applied for nomination to contest from the Gampaha district and faced the interview fearlessly, probably knowing that the UPFA seniors conducting interviews were supportive of her group.

The Provincial Councillor later realized that the party had decided to reject nomination for her. She left the Opposition Leader’s office on Wednesday, crying. Whether Samanmalee will support the former President’s election campaign in Kurunegala is now a question.

SB’s leap forward

Politics create nothing but strange bedfellows. It was just six months ago that S.B. Dissanayake, a key speaker of the former President’s election campaign, lashed out at Common Candidate Sirisena and his supporting team while dubbing them as the yahapalana nadaya (Not to mention the infamous remark he made on former President Kumaratunga).

Just weeks after the election, Dissanayake slowly aligned himself with President Sirisena and became a main force that protected him against the growing influence of the Rajapaksas within the party.

However, their efforts failed when Rajapaksa managed to get nomination to contest from the UPFA with the support of Susil PRemajayantha and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa.

On Friday, Dissanayake was seen having back room discussions to join the ‘good governance front’ along with Rajitha Senaratne, Arjuna Ranatunga, M.K.D.S. Gunawardena and Patali Champika Ranawaka.

Political sources said Dissanayake, in all probability, will join the good governance front and contest under the Elephant symbol as he has no other option.

Gambling on Basil - again

It was not very long ago that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he had learnt from the past and rectified his mistakes. Arguably, the biggest blunder he made was appointing his brother, Basil Rajapaksa, as the chief political strategist of his camp.

It was due to Basil Rajapaksa’s influence that party seniors such as Maithripala Sirisena and Nimal Siripala de Silva got sidelined.

The disappointment and frustration that prevailed among the SLFP old guard finally led to Rajapaksa’s downfall in January, this year.

In an interesting turn on events, UPFA sources, on Wednesday, said Basil Rajapaksa would work in the capacity of his sibling’s campaign manager and the political strategist for the Parliamentary election.

They said Rajapaksa would also support some of the close allies of MR who have joined the election race.

Meanwhile, a sizable proportion of UPFA candidates have already said that Basil Rajapaksa’s presence in the election campaign will drive people away from the UPFA. Even the likes of Wimal Weerawansa openly stated after the Presidential election that Basil Rajapaksa was responsible for Rajapaksa’s election defeat in January.

‘Old habits die hard,” a disgruntled UPFA candidate said while commenting on the former President’s irreversible tactical blunders.

With Apsari on FB

Mahinda Rajapaksa, when he was in power, spent a lot of time and energy to maintain his sporty personality and macho image.

However, Rajapaksa’s sporty image was tarnished by Apsari Thilakaratne, the wife of former Sri Lankan cricketer Hashan Thilakaratne on Friday. Apsari, on Friday, met the former President at his Mirihana residence and posted some pictures of the meeting on her Facebook page.

The pictures, unfortunately, showed the real body-shape and size of the former President, contrary to the ‘sporty photographs’ issued by his official media team.

The bulging belly shown in the pictures came as a shock to many who were dazzled by the former President’s so-called trim macho image.

The caption of Apsari’s photograph was ‘with our great leader @ his residence’.