Welgama removed from SLPP Badulla district organizer post

By Palitha Ariyawansa and S. Aslam  

Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Parliamentarian Kumara Welgama,  was expelled from the Badulla District organizer post of the SLPP at the party’s Badulla District general assembly on Saturday (29). 

He was removed because he was overtly critical of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa being promoted as the presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). Parliamentarian Thenuka Vidanagamage was appointed in his place.   

Mr. Welgama was elected to Parliament from the Kalutara District on the SLFP ticket and appointed as the Badulla district organizer ahead of the 2018 Local Government elections. He was a staunch supporter of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. However, he had openly criticized the move to field Former Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the presidential candidate of the SLPP.   

Mr. Vidanagamage explained that the people of Badulla have rejected Mr. Welgama as their organiser and that the post had now been given to him. He also appreciated the fact that Welgama was a veteran politician with a thirty-year political history out of which 20 years had been as a parliamentarian.