‘UPFA will win WPC polls with bigger majority’

Lakshmi de Silva

The UPFA’s political popularity started to flow like a river from the victory of the Eastern Provincial Council had now become a strong force followed by the victories of the North Central, North Western and Sabaragamuwa provincial elections.

The UPFA will win the Western Provincial Council Election with a bigger majority and the UNP would be flushed to the ocean. The 19th UNP defeat suffered by Ranil Wickremesinghe will be recorded with the UPFA obtaining a clear majority while more and more UNPers would rally round the UPFA, Minister of Healthcare and Nutrition Nimal Siripala de Silva said at the Mahaweli Centre, last Sunday.

He was addressing the Colombo West UPFA committee members and said the national policy adopted by the UPFA had united the three communities and there were Tamils, Muslims contesting the Western Provincial election. There was a choice to elect someone from all communities.

Chief Minister of the Eastern Province Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan now works with the ministers of his province, for the benefit of the people. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was not capable of doing such things. It shows the performance and non performance of the two leaders. People have rallied round President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was a people friendly leader, the Minister said.

The weakened JVP too will be diluted after the Western Provincial elections. But it was the JVP that had failed to realize that they were sinking because they were not responding or feeling the people’s pulse, the Health Minister said.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa Government had provided 200,000 jobs in the public sector but during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s period he had not given even two persons employment in the public sector, he noted.

Sports and Public Recreation Minister Gamini Lokuge said the 17 member UNP team joined the Mahinda Rajapaksa government to strengthen the measures taken by the President after the Mavil Aru incident which displaced around 20,000 people in the Kantalai area.

Former Presidents adopted different methods to solve the LTTE problem. President J.R. Jayewardene signed an agreement with the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and brought the Indian Peace Keeping Force. Yet the war did not end.

Then President Ranasinghe Premadasa brought the LTTE to Colombo for talks and finally he had to sacrifice his life. When President Chandrika Kumaratunga came to power, she sent representatives to the North for talks with the LTTE, she too faced a LTTE suicide bomber’s attack, narrowly escaped death, Lokuge said. President Mahinda Rajapaksa had achieved victory over the terrorists though his predecessors could not achieve such success for over 30 years. Since the A9 highway was now opened people of the North and South could interact with the new freedom they got, Colombo West Chief Organizer Mayantha Dissanayake noted.