United National Party Deputy Leader and Minister Sajith Premadasa says that the meeting he had with the leaders of several UNF alliance’s minor parliamentary political parties had been “fruitful and satisfactory” and that a decision on future political strategy would be made shortly.
The meeting between Minister Premadasa and the minority political parties was held at Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s residence in Colombo, on Saturday evening.
After the meeting, Minister Premadasa told news media that the meeting reached a satisfactory conclusion. When he was asked whether there were any demands from the side of minority parties, he said that there were no demands and he never knelt down before demands.
“I am not in the calibre of fearing demands,” he said.
Instead of presenting demands, the attention of everyone at the meeting had focussed on how the country could be governed in progressive way to achieve prosperity.
The meeting with minority parties comes in the wake of Prime Minister and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe asking Premadasa to ascertain whether he could obtain the support of the minority political parties if he is selected as the Presidential candidate. Following this request Premadasa held discussions with minor political parties including Champika Ranawaka (JHU), Mano Ganesan, Palani Dhigambaram (TPA), Rauf Hakeem, Nizam Kariyappar (SLMC), and Rishad Badurdeen (ACMC). Mangala Samaraweera, Malik Samarawickarma, Kabir Hashim, Eran Wickramaratna of the UNP participated in the meeting along with Premadasa.
Meanwhile, Mano Ganesan while addressing media also said that the meeting between UNF alliance partners and Premadasa’s team concluded positively. According to him many important decisions were reached including not to dragging the presidential candidacy issue beyond this week under any circumstances. Accordingly, they are awaiting to have a conclusion on the issue of the presidential candidate before weekend.
He added that another meeting has been scheduled between Prime Minister Ranil wickremasinghe and Tamil national Allanace (TNA) on Tuesday (tomorrow) at 10 a.m. in Parliament. After this meeting the TNA will again meet Minister Preamadasa to discuss about the presidential candidate.
(Daily News)