By Walter Jayawardhana

Niranjan Devaadithya who is also known as Nirj Deva has been reelected to the European Parliament from the South East of the United Kingdom.

He kept his seat, according to results issued on Sunday with the other three Conservative Members in an election which became very disastrous for the ruling Labour Party in the United Kingdom. All the indications were the ruling party would dip below 20 percent .

Devadithya , a very close friend of Sri Lanka in a statement to this correspondent said, “I am delighted to have increased the Conservative vote by 50 percent . This shows the Labour Party is completely destroyed and the British people are looking for a new government and new policies in Europe .The failed policies of Miliband have ended in dust. Conservative Party’s policies are forming in to warm relations with the Commonwealth , in which Sri Lanka is a member , as a balance to Britain’s relationship with Europe .”

He said the Conservative Party will make Commonwealth an equally important partner like Europe.”

Speaking before a Sri Lankan Forum at the Student Union of the Oxford University in UK , a day before the EU election results were issued , Devadithya said Sri Lanka is a country that enjoyed the universal franchise even before Britain as a functioning democracy. But the LTTE was never espousing the Rule of Law. He said majority of Sri Lankan Tamil leaders were killed by the LTTE. He said , Karuna, who eschewed violence and joined the government was received with open arms.

He said by those events the country has gained extraordinary maturity. He said the European Union should now give generously to reconstruct the war ravaged area. The money is needed to repair broken and neglected roads for decades. And to protect the people from Dengue and Malaria and to establish good governance still more money is needed. He said Europe, together with Britain should help Sri Lanka in this great task.

In 1999 Nirj Deva, a Sinhalese, became the first Asia-born person to be elected as a Conservative member of the European Parliament . He represented same seat from the beginning. He served as the Coordinator on the Committee on Overseas Development and Cooperation and has been bureau member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary assembly . In the last Parliament he also served in the Foreign Affairs Committee.