UNP chairman alleges leadership crisis within Premadasa-led SJB

COLOMBO: UNP Chairman Vajira Abeywardena said the leadership crisis within the SJB has paved the way for the emergence of leaders like Patali Champika Ranawaka and several others as future leaders.

This could result in the SJB splitting into several factions, he added.

Abeywardene said it was a political tragedy that those who boasted of capturing the UNP and Sirikotha could not even secure the power of the party they had formed less than a year ago.

Abeywardena referring to a recent incident where the Parliamentary Group of the SJB had pledged allegiance to the Opposition Leader, said that no Leader of the Opposition in Sri Lanka or in any other country in the world had had got his parliamentary group to express confidence in his position before.

Abeywardena also said that a person holding the post of Leader of the Opposition should not have confidence in the post but should win the trust of the people to become the primeminister or the president of the country in the future.

Abeywardena expressed these views at a discussion held with senior members of the UNP through Zoom technology.

The discussion was held under the patronage of United National Party Leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Abeywardena said the UNP does not interfere in the crises of any party and that the UNP stands only for the people’s interests.