JVP throws its weight behind TNA chief 

September 5, 2015, 8:35 am

JVP leader Anua Kumara Dissanayake addressing the media at the party headquarters at Pelawatte yesterday. JVP National List MP Sunil Handunnetti is also present. (Pic courtesy JVP)

By Dasun Edirisinghe

The JVP yesterday welcomed the appointment of TNA leader R. Sampanthan as the Leader of the Opposition claiming that his party had the highest number of MPs in the opposition.

Addressing the media at the party headquarters, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that according to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, the UPFA General Secretary Prof. Wiswa Warnapala had informed him in a letter that the UPFA would not name anyone for the Opposition Leader’s post. The UPFA secured highest number of seats in the house after the UNP at the August 17 General Election.

According to the Constitution, the Opposition leader would be appointed from the party which obtained the highest number of seats after the winning party, Dissanayake said adding that it was fully legal.

Dissanayake said that his party was opposed TNA policies, but it was not a barrier to work with them in the opposition even after the JVP got the post of Chief Opposition Whip.

The JVP leader claimed that the UPFA MPs who criticised the appointment of Sampanthan as the Opposition Leader should have been in the opposition without supporting the UNP to obtain ministerial portfolios for their personal gains.

Dissanayake said that the UPFA MPs could not declare that they would function as independent MPs and claim the opposition leader’s post.

"If we do not allow the TNA to obtain the Opposition Leader’s post, they can easily campaign worldwide that Sri Lanka Parliament does not respect its democratic right or honour the Constitution," the JVP said, adding that if so the TNA could easily justify their claim for the federal or any other proposal to claim a separate Parliament within the country.

Dissanayake alleged that the UPFA had joined the government seeking personal benefits and betrayed their mandate which was against forming a national government. The present government was not very different from the previous corrupt Mahinda Rajapaksa government; it was generously distributing ministerial portfolios, he said.