{"id":130734,"date":"2014-09-22T13:34:47","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T08:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=130734"},"modified":"2014-10-01T22:57:20","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T17:27:20","slug":"tissa-a-quits-unp-leadership-council-rajapaksa-alles-maharaja-premadasa-pact-unfolds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tissa-a-quits-unp-leadership-council-rajapaksa-alles-maharaja-premadasa-pact-unfolds\/","title":{"rendered":"Tissa A Quits UNP Leadership Council: Rajapaksa-Alles-Maharaja-Premadasa Pact Unfolds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UNP General Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Tissa+Attanayake&amp;x=10&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Tissa Attanayake<\/span><\/a> resigned from the UNP Leadership Council a short while ago.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_58492\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Thissa-Attanayake.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-58492\" class=\"size-full wp-image-58492\" alt=\"Tissa\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Thissa-Attanayake.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"278\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-58492\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tissa<\/p><\/div>\n<p>While no reasons were immediately available for his sudden resignation the move is expected to be a prelude to the eventual abolishing of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Karu+Jayasuriya&amp;x=9&amp;y=1\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Karu Jayasuriya<\/span><\/a> led Leadership Council established by the UNP Working Committee in October 2013. Attanayake&#8217;s resignation was announced first on the Sirasa media network which is known to be very pro <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sajith+Premadasa&amp;x=8&amp;y=2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sajith<\/span><\/a> faction.<\/p>\n<p>The dissolution of the Leadership Council is a major demand of the pro-Sajith group including political puppeteers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Tiran+Alles&amp;x=6&amp;y=2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Tiran Alles<\/span><\/a> head of the Mawbima Group and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Raja+Mahendran&amp;x=12&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Kili Maharaja<\/span><\/a> head of Sirasa network. Negotiations conducted mostly through Attanayake with UNP Leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ranil+Wickremasinghe&amp;x=9&amp;y=7\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ranil Wickremasinghe<\/span><\/a> involved the pre condition from the Premadasa faction that the Council be dissolved if Sajith Premadasa is to accept the deputy leadership of the Party.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This sudden move that came out of the blue really looks like an attempt to undermine the huge success achieved by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Harin+Fernando&amp;x=9&amp;y=1\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Harin Fernando<\/span><\/a> in Uva on behalf of the UNP&#8221; one UNP Parliamentarian told Colombo Telegraph a short while ago.<\/p>\n<p>Political observers said that it was ironic that the UNP lapsed into internal disarray even when it performs creditably in an election.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is like sabotage. It helps the Government to take the gloss off Harin&#8217;s victories in Badulla&#8221; the Parliamentarian added.<\/p>\n<p>Attanayake&#8217;s go-between role in the Ranil-Sajith reunification has the blessings of the top rungs of the Rajapaksa Government Colombo Telegraph learns.<\/p>\n<p>Premadasa who watched the finals of the T20 World Cup that Sri Lanka won with President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=11&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> and Defence Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Gotabaya+Rajapaksa&amp;x=11&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> at the hotel of high networth businessman Dilith Jayaweera is seen by some UNPers to be playing to a Government agenda. The Premadasa-Rajapaksa alliance has been growing stronger lately especially after the Defence Secretary bailed Dulanjali Premadasa out of a tightspot when a business associate was nearly arrested by the CID for fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Several members of the Rajapaksa administration have urged Sajith to resume as Deputy Leader of the UNP a source close to the negotiations told Colombo Telegraph. The source said the move is believed to be the first step towards scuttling a common opposition platform at a presidential election which would be advantageous to the Rajapaksa regime.<\/p>\n<p>Among Premadasa&#8217;s other demands are the total control of Sirikotha the party headquarters and that no other deputy leaders should be appointed alongside him.<\/p>\n<p>Colombo Telegraph is in possession of information regarding the other ways in which Attanayake has been rewarded for his role in the negotiations between the UNP Leadership and Premadasa and his team of handlers. Those details will be revealed in further updates. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":58492,"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-130734","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>Tissa A Quits UNP Leadership Council: Rajapaksa-Alles-Maharaja-Premadasa Pact Unfolds - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tissa-a-quits-unp-leadership-council-rajapaksa-alles-maharaja-premadasa-pact-unfolds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tissa A Quits UNP Leadership Council: Rajapaksa-Alles-Maharaja-Premadasa Pact Unfolds - 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