Time for Sajith to return to the UNP: Navin

• Those who left the party had ended up as failures

By Yohan Perera   

Doors are open for former opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and others to return to the UNP,  National Organiser Navin Dissanayake said yesterday.   

He told a news conference that Mr. Premadasa should remember fate suffered by those who left the UNP in the past.   

“My father the late Gamini Dissanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali and G.M. Premachandra rebelled against President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1991 and formed the DUNF. However both my father and Mr Premachandra had to return to the UNP after Mr. Athulathmudali and Mr. Premadasa passed away. The DUNF did not last long. Rukman Senanayake formed another party in 1987 thinking he could get an advantage by marketing his grandfather late Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake. 

However it was also a failure. Sajith should take a note of these incidents,” Mr Dissanayake said.“Sajith must be thinking of playing a similar political game as Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who formed the SLPP by quitting the SLFP. Mr. Rajapaksa was popular after he ended the 30-year war. Besides he has 50 years of experience in the field of politics. Such a feat is not possible for everyone.”   

Mr. Dissanayake said UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe does not intend to remain as the leader for long. “ Mr. Wickremesinghe had set the course for others to take over as leaders in the future. Mr. Premadasa was in the forefront as a possible successor to Mr. Wickremesinghe. Sajith should have understood this situation,” he said.   
When asked how he could find fault with Mr. Premadasa for forming another party when he too had left the UNP in the past and rejoined later, Mr. Dissanayake said he and 16 others left the UNP and joined the government to help end the war. 

“We were tired of war and that is why we thought of supporting then government to end it,” he said. “We came back to UNP when we realized that constitutional reforms of the then Rajapaksa government 
were unjust.” 

• Sajith must be thinking of playing a similar political game as Prime  Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who formed the SLPP by quitting the SLFP