It is in the grapevine among political circles that several senior members of the ruling party have requested President Mahinda Rajapaksa to appoint SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena as the Prime Minister, replacing D.M. Jayaratne, before the next Presidential election.
The development came in the wake of the reports that Minister Maithripala Siisena had sent a letter to the President urging him to refrain from holding presidential election two years before the end of his second term.
{module LOLC}
The Minister has not yet officially denied media reports with regard to the letter which created a controversy among some sections of the rank and file of the ruling party.
Those who back Minister Maithripala Sirisena’s candidacy to the post of Prime Minister have stated that the ruling party should have a strong “second-in-command” to face the pressure exerted by the opposition. At the recently held Uva Provincial Council, opposition parties showed a statistical progress while the ruling party experienced a noticeable decline in their vote base.
They have asserted that appointing Minister Sirisena as the Prime Minister will be a good strategy to turn the tables on the opposition. However, spokespersons of the government have still not responded to the story.
However, those who are close to the first family are viewing this proposal with a modicum of suspicion as Sirisena has been identified as a 'threat' by some - to the top echelons of the government. Despite such speculations Sirisena has not expressed any dissenting views in public on the first family or the top rung members of the ruling party.
They have also urged the President to give a key post to Anuradha Jayaratne, Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne’s son, as “compensation” for removing Prime Minister Jayaratne from the position. Jayaratne, who is an octogenarian, was appointed as the Prime Minister of the UPFA government following the general election of 2010.
There were various media reports in the recent past over Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne’s failing health. The Present Prime Minister is one of the most senior members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party who obtained his party membership on the day the SLFP was launched in 1952.
Maithripala Sirisena’s name was proposed to the position of the Prime Minister several times since 2005. He has been a member of Parliament since 1989 and has held important position in the government since 1994.
