{"id":108269,"date":"2013-09-30T23:36:02","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T18:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=108269"},"modified":"2013-10-05T03:03:31","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T21:33:31","slug":"i-should-be-sri-lankas-leader-not-provincial-chief-minister-sajith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/i-should-be-sri-lankas-leader-not-provincial-chief-minister-sajith\/","title":{"rendered":"I Should Be Sri Lanka&#8217;s Leader Not Provincial Chief Minister: Sajith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former UNP Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa has hit back against attempts to make him contest the forthcoming Southern Provincial Council elections as the Party\u2019s Chief Ministerial candidate, charging that \u201cpolitical eunuchs\u201d within the UNP were attempting to relegate him to a provincial role.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_108270\" style=\"width: 234px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/i-should-be-sri-lankas-leader-not-provincial-chief-minister-sajith\/sajith-premadasa\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-108270\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-108270\" class=\"size-full wp-image-108270\" title=\"Sajith Premadasa\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Sajith-Premadasa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Sajith-Premadasa.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Sajith-Premadasa-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Sajith-Premadasa-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-108270\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sajith Premadasa<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cUNPers want me to be leader of this country, not Chief Minister of the South,\u201d a suddenly outspoken <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sajith+Premadasa&amp;x=11&amp;y=4\">Premadasa<\/a><\/span> said yesterday, condemning those he called political has-beens and \u201ceunuchs\u201d for attempting to thrust him into a provincial poll battle in the Rajapaksa heartland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese bankrupt politicians who are looking longingly to the day when they can join forces with <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Chandrika+Kumaratunga&amp;x=13&amp;y=2\">Chandrika Kumaratunga<\/a><\/span> and wrest control of the SLFP once again are attempting to get me to contest a provincial election,\u201d Premadasa said at a meeting yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to tell these \u2018Website politicians\u2019 and conspirators to at least now stop sabotaging the UNP,\u201d he charged.<\/p>\n<p>In the same breath, Premadasa also refers to the ruling Rajapaksa regime as \u201cRajapaksa Mahatturu\u201d, a remark that has angered several UNP members.<\/p>\n<p>The UNP\u2019s Matara Working Committee passed a resolution recently, calling on Premadasa to contest as the party\u2019s Chief Ministerial Candidate in the south to up the ante against the ruling regime. Premadasa has come out strongly against the call he says is being spearheaded by former SLFP strongman and current UNP Communications Director and MP, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mangala+Samaraweera&amp;x=11&amp;y=7\">Mangala Samaraweera<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake speaking at a news conference today said there was nothing wrong with contesting as a Chief ministerial candidate and recalled that President Chandrika Kumaratunga had also commenced her road to the presidency as Chief Minister of the Western Province.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is nothing to scoff at and a good launch pad for greater political office,\u201d Attanayake said.<\/p>\n<p>Since the UNP\u2019s devastating defeat in the provincial elections held on 21 September Premadasa has openly demanded the party leadership. Premadasa\u2019s sudden outbursts come as UNP Leader <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ranil+Wickremasinghe&amp;x=10&amp;y=7\">Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/a><\/span> has been thrust into yet another leadership crisis and speculation abounds that he may even step down.<\/p>\n<p>Several UNP members have criticised Premadasa\u2019s demands to take over the party reins, saying he has never been a team player or shown himself willing to accept a challenge on behalf of the party. \u201cThis rejection of the Southern Chief Ministerial contest is quite similar,\u201d one UNP member said on grounds of anonymity. \u201cIn this instance also Sajith is showing himself unwilling to step up to the challenge. He wants to be President but he is not sure of winning a Chief Ministerial contest, that is a fact,\u201d the member said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>To listen Sajith Premada&#8217;s speech click <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/sajitha-premadasa.mp3\">here<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":108270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>I Should Be Sri Lanka&#039;s Leader Not Provincial Chief Minister: Sajith - 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