Popular actress and UPFA Parliamentarian Upeksha Swarnamalini has offered to be a presidential candidate to defeat UNP Leadership Council Chairman Karu Jayasuriya whose name has been proposed as a potential common candidate of the opposition.
Expressing her viewpoints on the political strength of the opposition, the actress turned Parliamentarian has said UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is the only opposition politician who can pose “some challenge” to President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the next presidential election.
Actress Swarnamali contested the general election in 2010 under the UNP election and obtained more preferential votes than district leader Karu Jayasuriya. However, she later crossed over to the government and became the Monitoring MP of the Ministry of Foreign Employment.
“Karu Jayasuriya’s candidacy does not pose a threat to President Mahinda Rajapaksa at all. Even I can defeat him at any election” Swarnamalini, who is widely known as “Paba”, told a local newspaper on Saturday.
“It is truly a surprise to me that a politically weak character such as Karu Jayasuriya has been proposed as a common candidate of the opposition.”, Swarnamali said. He actress also charged that the senior UNP Parliamentarian did not offer her any support during her election campaign in 2010.
Swarnamali is of the view that Jayasuriya’s candidacy will be a blessing in disguise for the incumbent President in his run up to the third term.
“I can’t even imagine the plight of the UNP if they field Jayasuriya as the candidate,” the actress said.
The Parliamentarian also added that one of the best decisions of her life was to leave the main opposition party to join the government to support the controversial 18th amendment. The actress was often at the receiving end of media’s satirical comments for her ‘little’ knowledge of politics!
