{"id":72646,"date":"2017-12-11T16:26:22","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T23:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=72646"},"modified":"2017-12-11T16:26:22","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T23:26:22","slug":"prez-engineers-more-defections-udaya-sounds-warning-to-jo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/12\/11\/prez-engineers-more-defections-udaya-sounds-warning-to-jo\/","title":{"rendered":"Prez engineers more defections: Udaya sounds warning to JO"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"article_date\">December 11, 2017, 10:29 pm<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Deputy Leader of the breakaway JVP faction National Freedom Front (NFF) parliamentarian Weerakumara Dissanayake yesterday received SLFP membership from President and SLFP leader Maithripala Sirisena.<\/p>\n<p>Former MP and Chairman of NFF Piyasiri Wijenayake and North Central Province PC member P. B. Kumara, too, received SLFP membership.<\/p>\n<p>Anuradhapura District MP Dissanayake switched his allegiance to President Sirisena close on the heels of another UPFA MP Sriyani Wijewickrema belonging to Mahajana Eksath Peramuna representing the Digamadulla electoral district deserting the JO.<\/p>\n<p>A senior spokesperson for the NFF yesterday told The Island that the party was confident Dissanayake\u2019s move wouldn\u2019t cause a major problem.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.island.lk\/modules\/modPublication\/article_title_images\/1764777848m3.jpg\" alt=\"article_image\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The NFF parliamentary group originally comprised five members, Wimal Weerawansa, Weerakumara Dissanayake, Padma Udaya Shantha, Niroshan Premaratne and Jayantha Samaraweera.<\/p>\n<p>The NFF official said that the party would field candidates under the banner of Podujana Peramuna in all districts except in the North and Batticaloa.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader MP Udaya Gammanpila lashed out at the coalition for creating a situation that led to MP Wijewickrema quitting the JO. Addressing the media at PHU office at Pita Kotte, Gammanpila said that Wijewickrema was the only woman MP to address their inaugural rally at Nugegoda on Feb 18, 2015. Unfortunately, the way she had been treated at meetings of the Digamadulla nominations committee finally led to her move, MP Gammanpila alleged.<\/p>\n<p>Gammanpila quoted MP Wijewickrema as having told Ampara District leaders last Saturday at the final meeting of the nominations board that even a killing could take place unless issues could be settled amicably. Emphasizing that he under no circumstances endorsed MP Wijewickrema\u2019s demands pertaining to nominations, the MP said that she should have been given an opportunity to present her case.<\/p>\n<p>Gammanpila claimed that former MP and NFF member Jayantha Wijesekera, too, had joined the SLFP as he was deprived of an opportunity to discuss problems for three days. Had the leadership addressed Wijesekera\u2019s concerns, he wouldn\u2019t have abandoned the JO, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Declaring that his party would field candidates in 13 districts, MP Gammanpila said that he had recently clashed with UPFA heavyweight MP Bandula Gunawardena to ensure justice for another party. Gammanpila said the issue arose over allocation of time and space at meetings in the Homagama electorate.<\/p>\n<p>Gammanpila said he didn\u2019t want to name those responsible for the situation as such discourse could cause more desertions.<\/p>\n<p>The PHU leader warned of dire consequences unless all parties reached consensus on nominations and prevent their members switching allegiance simply on the basis of not receiving nominations. The MP said the Podujana Peramuna was really struggling to accommodate requests as the outfit was overwhelmed with prospective candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island December 11, 2017, 10:29 pm Deputy Leader of the breakaway JVP faction National Freedom Front (NFF) parliamentarian Weerakumara Dissanayake yesterday received SLFP membership from President and SLFP leader Maithripala Sirisena. Former MP and Chairman of NFF Piyasiri Wijenayake and North Central Province PC member P. B. Kumara, too, received SLFP [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72646","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=72646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}