{"id":133499,"date":"2014-11-23T15:37:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-23T10:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=133499"},"modified":"2014-12-01T00:21:56","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T18:51:56","slug":"government-baits-tissa-a-for-500-million-big-bucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/government-baits-tissa-a-for-500-million-big-bucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Government Baits Tissa A For 500 Million Big Bucks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UNP General Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Tissa+Attanayake&amp;x=7&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Tissa Attanayake<\/span><\/a> reinforced suspicions rampant about his allegiances with the regime for months by agreeing to cross over to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=11&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>&#8216;s Government for the &#8220;small sum&#8221; of Rs. 500 million, Colombo Telegraph reliably learns.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_130838\" style=\"width: 408px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chandrani-Tissa.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-130838\" class=\" wp-image-130838  \" alt=\"Chandrani and Tissa\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chandrani-Tissa.jpg\" width=\"398\" height=\"291\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chandrani-Tissa.jpg 813w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chandrani-Tissa-300x219.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chandrani-Tissa-800x584.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-130838\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chandrani and Tissa<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Attanayake has admitted himself to the Asiri Hospital in Colombo since Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>Rs. 200 million has already been paid to Attanayake in advance of his crossover. The advance is believed to have been paid out to a third party.<\/p>\n<p>Attanayake is expected to make the move in Parliament on Monday unless a flaw emerges in the Rajapaksa Government&#8217;s plans.<\/p>\n<p>UNP MP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Chandrani+Bandara&amp;x=8&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Chandrani Bandara<\/span><\/a> who is on intimate terms with Attanayake has been part of the 500 million deal. It is believed the Government has baited both MPs for that sum of money. Attanayake is a National List UNP member\u00a0 having failed to win a seat from his electorate in the last Parliamentary election.<\/p>\n<p>Colombo Telegraph exclusively <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/unp-mp-chandrani-bs-son-gets-diplomatic-posting\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">revealed details<\/span><\/a> some months ago about how the Government had won over Attanayake by handing over a diplomatic posting in Dubai to Bandara&#8217;s son <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Rukshan+Jayasinghe&amp;x=8&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Rukshan<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since that time, Attanayake has been working hand in glove with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Tiran+Alles&amp;x=9&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Tiran Alles<\/span><\/a>, now exposed as a Rajapaksa Government proxy to bring Sajith Premadasa back into the fold as Deputy Leader of the UNP. The Alles-Attanayake-Premadasa bandwagon firmly believed that Premadasa&#8217;s re-entry would cement Ranil Wickremesinghe&#8217;s candidacy as presidential contender to face off against Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n<p>Colombo Telegraph can now reveal that the deal between Attanayake and the Rajapaksa regime was struck by no other than master wheeler dealer Tiran Alles. Alles recently attempted to arm-twist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Maduluwawe+Sobitha&amp;x=11&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sobitha Thero<\/span><\/a> into backing down from the common opposition platform in order to allow President Rajapaksa&#8217;s ride to his third term to be smooth sailing.<\/p>\n<p>Alles, together with his ally in the UNP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sajith+Premadasa&amp;x=7&amp;y=2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sajith Premadasa<\/span><\/a> has been on a hectic mission to derail the common candidacy to ensure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ranil+Wickremesinghe&amp;x=8&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/span><\/a> becomes Rajapaksa&#8217;s main contender in the election.<\/p>\n<p>Premadasa&#8217;s grand plan, masterminded by Alles was for Wickremesinghe to lose the presidency and be forced to hand over the reins of the UNP to Ranasinghe Premadasa&#8217;s son.<\/p>\n<p>Facing a crisis because of the shocking move by the opposition to field <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Maithripala+Sirisena&amp;x=8&amp;y=1\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Maithripala Sirisena<\/span><\/a> Alles has now become the chief broker for the Rajapaksa regime. He will try to help the Government to bait UNP members who are on the fence in order to dampen the Opposition momentum.<\/p>\n<p>Colombo Telegraph reliably learns that several other UNP members are also in negotiations to join the Government. Many of the members are staunch supporters of Sajith Premadasa &#8211; including Buddhika Pathirana and Palitha Range Bandara.<\/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-133499","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>Government Baits Tissa A For 500 Million Big Bucks  - 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\/government-baits-tissa-a-for-500-million-big-bucks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government Baits Tissa A For 500 Million Big Bucks  - 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