{"id":58864,"date":"2018-04-16T19:00:19","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T00:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=58864"},"modified":"2018-04-16T19:00:19","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T00:00:19","slug":"arrest-of-slfp-ex-sports-minister-mahindananda-aluthgamage-for-alleged-misappropriation-and-misuse-of-govt-funds-causes-tensions-in-fragile-unp-slfp-coalition-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=58864","title":{"rendered":"Arrest of SLFP Ex-Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage for Alleged Misappropriation and Misuse of Govt Funds causes Tensions in Fragile UNP -SLFP Coalition Govt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sri Lankan police Monday arrested a leading dissident within President Maithripala Sirisena’s party, deepening political tensions on the island after the head of state suspended parliament.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mahindananda Aluthgamage, a former sports minister, was held over 39 million rupees ($260,000) that were allegedly misappropriated in 2014, police said in a statement.<\/p>\n

He was accused of spending government money to buy sports goods, which were handed out in a bid to get support for former president Mahinda Rajapakse ahead of a national election. The items included 14,000 boards for the popular South Asian game of carrom.<\/p>\n

Aluthgamage is a key figure in a faction that opposes Sirisena within his socialist Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The party has been in an uneasy coalition with the right-wing United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe since 2015.<\/p>\n

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There was no immediate comment from Aluthgamage’s faction which is led by Rajapakse who was in power for nearly a decade till he was defeated by Sirisena in 2015.<\/p>\n

The former sports minister’s arrest is seen by senior party members as a blow to the Rajapakse-faction which controls a majority of SLFP MPs.<\/p>\n

The two factions within the SLFP tried to unite earlier this month by introducing a no-confidence motion against the prime minister who comfortably defeated it.<\/p>\n

The failure to topple the prime minister led to serious recriminations within the SLFP.<\/p>\n

Six SLFP ministers resigned last week after voting against the prime minister and political sources say they are about to formally join the Rajapakse-faction, further weakening Sirisena’s hold on his party.<\/p>\n

Sirisena halted parliament’s session on Saturday until May 8 to give him more time for political manoeuvering, official sources told AFP.<\/p>\n

Apart from facing a party revolt, Sirisena also faces mounting troubles with Prime Minister Wickremesinghe.<\/p>\n

Tensions have heightened since Sirisena’s faction and Wickremesinghe’s UNP suffered major losses in local elections in February. Rajapakse was the big winner in the election.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Sirisena has reduced Wickremesinghe’s powers over the central bank, policy making institutions and other bodies.<\/p>\n

Sirisena is expected to reshuffle his cabinet on his return from the Commonwealth summit in London this week.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:ECONOMY NEXT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sri Lankan police Monday arrested a leading dissident within President Maithripala Sirisena’s party, deepening political tensions on the island after the head of state suspended parliament. Mahindananda Aluthgamage, a former sports minister, was held over 39 million rupees ($260,000) that were allegedly misappropriated in 2014, police said in a statement. He was accused of spending …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Arrest of SLFP Ex-Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage for Alleged Misappropriation and Misuse of Govt Funds causes Tensions in Fragile UNP -SLFP Coalition Govt’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58864"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58865,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58864\/revisions\/58865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}