Ranil must go, says Adhikari

United National Party veteran of the Rajarata, A.M.S.Adhikari has asked party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to step down from his post to pave the way for a suitable person to restore the UNP.

Writing to Wickremesinghe, the former party heavyweight has drawn attention to the 12 election defeats suffered by the party under his (Wickremesinghe's) leadership, adding that the prospects seemed bleak for a turn around at the next hustings since number 13 was considered inauspicious worldwide.

He observed that although it was the norm that the party leader receives the first preference vote at elections, this was not the case with regard to Wickremesinghe who was ignored by as much as one fourth of the party voters in the Colombo district from 1991 to 2004, interpreting this as a rejection of the latter's leadership.

Adhikari in his letter also slams Wickremesinghe for his aloof manner towards ordinary party members in contrast to other party leaders of the past who mingled with the supporter. "You prefer only the company of Royalists and beauty queens... at the last Presidential elections you promised denim suits and bracelets for the youth and assured the betel farmers that they would be weaned away from the habit of betel chewing and supplied with chewing-gum instead. The media made a laughing-stock of you".

He reminded Wickremesinghe that the UNP was entrusted with power amidst great expectations in 2001.

"But other than duping the masses with the so-called Hundred-Day no tangible service was rendered to the people or the party," Adhikari said.

In contrast, the present Government within one year had given employment to nearly 42,000 graduates and out of the total recruitment of teachers, clerks etc by the North Central Province 60 per cent were UNP sympathisers, Adhikari states adding that definitely these families will show their gratitude (to the present Government).