{"id":143628,"date":"2024-08-21T16:34:08","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T23:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=143628"},"modified":"2024-08-21T16:34:08","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T23:34:08","slug":"sjbs-thalatha-athukorala-resigns-as-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/08\/21\/sjbs-thalatha-athukorala-resigns-as-mp\/","title":{"rendered":"SJB\u2019s Thalatha Athukorala resigns as MP"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Ratnapura District MP Thalatha Athukorala has informed parliament that she will be resigning from her position as a Member of Parliament.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She made the announcement while delivering a statement in Parliament today (21).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thalatha Athukorala, the sister of the late United National Party (UNP) politician Gamini Athukorala, first entered Parliament in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0db8\u0db1\u0dca\u0dad\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dd3 \u0db0\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dba\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca \u0d89\u0dc0\u0dad\u0dca\u0dc0\u0dd9\u0db8\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dca \u0dad\u0dbd\u0dad\u0dcf \u0d85\u0dad\u0dd4\u0d9a\u0ddd\u0dbb\u0dc5 \u0db4\u0dcf\u0dbb\u0dca\u0dbd\u0dd2\u0db8\u0dda\u0db1\u0dca\u0dad\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0dda \u0daf\u0dd3 \u0d9a\u0dc5 \u0dc3\u0d82\u0dc0\u0dda\u0daf\u0dd3 \u0d9a\u0dad\u0dcf\u0dc0...\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1ha1wLOxM60?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>She has been re-elected in subsequent general elections in 2010, 2015, and 2020 from the Ratnapura District.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 2020 general election, she secured her seat in Parliament as a member of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) with 45,105 votes from the Ratnapura District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Delivering her special statement in parliament today, Athukorala said the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>This is a very emotional moment for me. On one side, our \u2018mother party\u2019 &#8211; the United National Party has split into two. Both the leader and former deputy leader of that party have become political enemies. Both are vying to become president. At a time when everyone is trying to unite, I cannot wholeheartedly agree with the decision for our camp to divide and contest separately.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>I believe that the decision for the two leaders to separate and contest is a selfish political decision taken without thinking about the future of the country.&nbsp; History will prove that in the near future. If I continue to remain silent about it, I will also become an indirect contributor to that sin.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>I will never stop my political journey and I will say that with pride and courage at this moment.&nbsp; I have no regrets of leaving my position as an MP. Today, I am facing that crucial moment and this is the first time I am informing this to the parliament.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>I do not wish for the party to split even though I won as a candidate of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, I still continue to think whether the decision we took back then without thinking about the future was the correct decision.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The thought of whether I contributed to the division of our great party makes me feel sadder than the happiness of the MP position I gained.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Ratnapura District MP Thalatha Athukorala has informed parliament that she will be resigning from her position as a Member of Parliament.&nbsp; She made the announcement while delivering a statement in Parliament today (21). Thalatha Athukorala, the sister of the late United National Party (UNP) politician Gamini Athukorala, first entered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}