Parliamentary Election campaign:

UPFA kicks off from Kandy

Nadira Gunatilleke

The large scale election campaign of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) will commence on March 19 in Kandy with a mass rally under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s patronage, Transport Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said.

The UPFA will hold 26 main election rallies at district level with the President’s participation from March 19 to April 5, he said. Addressing the weekly UPFA press briefing at the Mahaweli Centre, Colombo yesterday, Minister Alahapperuma said the UPFA will hold another 74 election rallies at electoral level with the participation of Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka and other UPFA leaders.

The number of estate election meetings to be held is 10,000. Around 1,000 such meetings have already been held. It is also planned to hold 30,000 grassroot level meetings.

This is in addition to the individual pocket meetings to be organized by the candidates.

The UPFA will visit each and every home at least twice during its campaign. The program will commence on March 20.

According to Minister Alahapperuma there is no visible election campaign by the Opposition. The Opposition Leader is in a very happy mood after a long time after watching big matches and dancing in public. He is happy after many years because he secured his party leadership for another 17 years. Now the third `SF operation’ is in progress to win one seat in Parliament for the JVP. Earlier it was to secure the Opposition Leadership, the Minister said.

Meanwhile, the UNF will launch its campaign from Jaffna on March 19. The DNA has already launched its campaign.