Kennedys, Gandhis also famous political families like Rajapaksas: Gota

Tuesday, 3 June 2014 01:41 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Powerful Defence Secretary tells newspaper says he will contest from Colombo, not Hambantota if he enters political fray. In a dramatic twist, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has avowed to enter politics one day, if his entry is approved by his brother and President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Speaking to our newly launched Sunday sister newspaper Deshaya, the Defence Secretary said that while he had no personal interest in politics, he would enter the fray if that was what the President wanted him to do.

Unlike the rest of his family, the Defence Secretary said he would not enter politics from the southern Hambantota District. “I will not contest from Hambantota. I will contest from Colombo,” he told Deshaya in the interview. “I ensured the war victory. And I have now made Colombo a new city. When I started this many raised doubts, but now I have done it,” he asserted. Secretary Rajapaksa said he was the only politician in the Rajapaksa family that had not been elected by the people. He asserted that there were “famous political families” in other countries as well. “There is the Kennedy family in the US. The Gandhi Family in India. Why is everyone so bothered about the Rajapaksas?” he queried. The Defence Secretary said that the Rajapaksas had been into politics from 1931. “D.M. Rajapaksa was the first Rajapaksa to enter politics,” the Defence Secretary said.