Monday, 1 December 2014 00:10
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Sparking speculation of more crossovers in the offing from Government ranks, SLFP strongman and Minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon broke down in tears while addressing a party meeting in Dambulla yesterday.
An emotional Lands and Land Development Minister said he had warned President Mahinda Rajapaksa that there would be defections from the party. Many people in the SLFP were fed up, he said. “When MP Namal Rajapaksa came to my house in Dambulla, I said ‘Son, there is a problem, look into it’. They said ‘no, no, that it would not happen’,” he told the SLFP meeting.
“They should listen to us more often,” Minister Tennakoon noted. “When we say things we say it from the bottom of our hearts, because the SLFP is our life.”
The tearful Minister said that his own father had commenced his political journey by selling small books of poetry. “He was a poor, innocent man. I will never leave this party because this party is a gift my father left me,” he cried.
Tennakoon said he had told the President he would not leave the SLFP because his father would “rise from his grave and give me a slap.”
“We will face the next election after studying our failures and how we can fix them,” the Minister said.
Since former Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena’s defection and decision to contest as the common opposition candidate, the UPFA Government has lost 11 members of Parliament. Six defectors have been from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. (DB)
