3 January 2017 12:00 am
With the local government polls round the corner, most prominent politicos have stopped gallivanting here and abroad and are back at the grass-roots to gear up their party machinery.
This young ambitious Blue party politico from the Kurunegala district the other day set about holding a meeting of the party’s Bala-Mandalaya in his constituency with much fanfare to impress his leaders. And soon he learnt to his horror that almost all party activists in the area had hitched their allegiance to the Pohottuwa and had decided to boycott the event.
However, he could not call off the event without losing face. So he hit upon a bright idea – to make a request to employees of all co-operatives in the area to attend the Bala-mandalaya meeting holding out the promise of valuable gifts to all would-be attendees.
Some 300 employees had reportedly attended the meeting, most of them eager to receive a valuable gift package. However, they had received only a T-shirt each at the conclusion of the meeting, they say.