MINISTER FERNANDOPULLE SAYS DAYS FOR RANIL AS LEADER OF OPPOSITION ARE NUMBERED AND WIMAL WEERAWANSA MIGHT GET HIS JOB

By Walter Jayawardhana

Cabinet Minister Jeyaraj Fernadopulle predicted that there are possibilities that Ranil Wickremesinghe might lose his job and Wimal Weerawansa might very well become the country’s Leader of Opposition very soon in the present parliament.

With the planned cross over of the next five UNP parliamentarians the office of the Leader of Opposition held by the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe would come to an end predicted Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. But he did not give a date that might happen.

Minister Fernandopulle was speaking at the foundation laying ceremony for a new bridge being erected with Chinese aid on the Veyangoda -Ruwanwella Road to replace an old iron bridge erected in 1896 with a new one.

Fernandopulle said currently the United National Party(UNP) is only having 42 members in the parliament and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is having 38 parliamentarians .
If the UNP loses another five members in the next cross over , said the Minister , their number would decrease to 37 - that is one less than the JVP.

Fernandopulle said that day Ranil would even lose the job he is already having in his hand rather than getting the Prime Ministership or the Presidency of the country he is dreaming about .

Fernandopulle was obviously referring to the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s statement at the recent Special General Convention of the United National Party that President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s days are numbered. He was quoted having said that the country’s situation is worsening by the day in all aspects with the rising cost of living, high inflation, war and corruption and these doesn’t augur well for the President to continue for much long.

At this party session Wickremesinghe got the post of the party deputy leader abolished in retaliation against Karu Jayasuriya who held the post , who recently led 18 parliamentarians in the history’s biggest cross over to the government. The reformists led by Karu call the Siri Kotha party convention illegal and the matter could be the subject of a long drawn court litigation.

Obviously sensing some impending political turmoil, the Anuradhapura District Member of parliament, Lal Kantha addressing a different rally of his party, the JVP in Ampara said the immediate need of the country is to form a patriotic opposition for the nation. He said that is the need of the hour.