By

Prasad Gunewardene

In a bid to unite and strengthen the United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is to appoint Sajith Premadasa as his deputy very shortly, sources close to the UNP leader revealed yesterday.

This would be the third time Premadasa would occupy that position in the Party.

This follows several rounds of talks between the duo held in the recent past, where the focus was on uniting the UNP and bringing back active members who had left the Party over differences in the past.
Wickremesinghe is to propose the appointment of Premadasa as deputy leader at the next Working Committee meet of the Party, sources said, adding that a confidante of the leader would second the proposal.

He, however, declined to divulge the name of the confidante.

Sources said Wickremesinghe’s decision to appoint Premadasa as deputy leader had been met with stiff resistance from Mangala Samaraweera, Wijedasa Rajapakshe and Ravi Karunanayake, in the manner…
E.L. Senananayake, E.L.B. Hurulle and Montague Jayawickreme opposed former UNP leader, J.R. Jayewardene’s proposal to appoint Ranasinghe Premadasa as the deputy leader.

However, Jayewardene, on the instructions of Esmond Wickremesinghe (Ranil’s father), appointed Ranasinghe Premadasa, as Esmond Wickremesinghe strongly backed a Jayewardene-Premadasa combination to bring the UNP back to power.

The Jayewardene-Premadasa combination swept the UNP into power with a landslide victory in 1977 as predicted by Esmond Wickremesinghe.

The UNP leader and Sajith Premadasa last week met at a wedding reception in Kandy and were seated together at the same table exchanging pleasantries while they also discussed future plans regarding the party.

Sources said that Premadasa had extended his fullest cooperation to the UNP leader if the latter decides to contest the next Presidential Election.

Courtesy:Ceylon Today