By Walter Jayawardhana

The Janata Vimukthi Peramuna who quit the UPFA government could be always welcomed back to the government fold , Minister maitripala Sirisena said yesterday.

General Secretary of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party said in a television interview yesterday if the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna remained in the government it would have been beneficial for both parties.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-It would have been good for them and it would have been good for us. See, by quitting the alliance they have created a setback for themƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, the minister said in a conciliatory tone yesterday taking part in a TV interview conducted by a state owned independent Television Network.

He said the JVP was a major party of the United PeopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Freedom Alliance when it was formed and the JVP politically benefitted by being a party to the coalition.

Interviewed in Sinhalese by Sudharman Radaliyagoda the minister said after quitting the coalition, the JVP lessened the number of seats it won in the provincial council elections.

Although the minister did not mention it, the JVP parliamentary group also broke into two one supporting the government and the other quitting the government.

Maithripala Sirisena said they could be always welcomed back to the government fold.

Replying a major problem of policies between the two parties , the acceptance of Presidential system of government by the SLFP Sirisena said if not for the Presidential system the terrorist movement Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) could not have been defeated so easily. He said the necessity of keeping it still exists as a portion of defeating the movement is not yet complete.

He said there is a possibility of gaining a two third majority for the government exists at the next parliamentary general elections before the end of next April . He accepted that there were major constitutional changes necessary following such circumstances but he did not say those include the abolition of the Presidential system of government