by Dasun Edirisinghe

Newly appointed National Organiser of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Susil Premajayantha yesterday said former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had not yet made known whether he would contest a parliamentary election again though several UPFA constituents at a public rally in Nugegoda on Wednesday evening demanded that Rajapaksa be nominated the prime ministerial candidate of the alliance.

“It is too early to nominate the Prime Ministerial Candidate, but they would always be ready to consider the opinions of the constituent parties,” he said.

Commenting on the rally held under the theme ‘Make Mahinda PM’ jointly organised by the MEP, DLF, NFF and Pivithuru Hela Urumaya, Premajayantha said it had been a successful rally.

Premjayantha said the Nugegoda rally had jolted the UNP and not the SLFP.

Answering a query, Premajayantha said that the SLFP had not tried to prevent any of its MPs, Chief Ministers, Provincial Councillors or Local Government members from participating at the Nugegoda rally and there were no pos action against the participants.

The former Minister said that he would go from electorate to electorate to organise the SLFP grassroots level organisations and strengthen the ties among constituents of the alliance in his capacity as UPFA General Secretary.

“We will produce our own Prime Minister as already President Maithripala Sirisena is the leader of the SLFP,” Premjayantha said, adding that their party was the only strong party that had two former Presidents and two former Prime Ministers as party patrons while the incumbent President was leading it.

Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala de Silva said that 12 committees had already been appointed to the party’s general election campaign and party leader Maithripala Sirisena would meet electoral organisers shortly.

Newly appointed SLFP Treasurer S.B. Nawinna also addressed the media.

Courtesy:The Island