MINISTER RAJITHA SENARATNE SAYS THE NEW UNP WORKING COMMITTEE THE LEADER HAS APPOINTED IS ILLEGAL

By Walter Jayawardhana

The working committee of the United National Party appointed by its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is illegal charged minister of Construction and Engineering Services Rajitha Senaratne.

He said while a stay order by a court of law was in force preventing Ranil Wickremesinghe from appointing those bodies, he had illegally appointed his working committee of 50 members .

The Kalutara District MP who crossed over to the government from the opposition United National Party (UNP) said in a press briefing in Colombo that from the day one he became the leader of the UNP he has been acting in a dictatorial manner and no democratic spirit was allowed to sustain in the party.

When members were agitating in the party for reforms , Senaratne said, Ranil Wickremesinghe declared that he was prepared for reforms. But the reforms he did were not the reforms the party members agitated for but reforms Ranil Wickremesinghe wanted from which he benefited.
With the fifty members newly appointed arbitrarily , Senaratne said , now there are also the 18 UNP dissidents who joined the government in the same committee.

The eighteen UNP reformists led by Karu Jayasuriya who have joined the government are expected to be litigating against the leadership of the UNP in a long drawn out battle hampering any progress of the party.