{"id":186498,"date":"2018-01-17T10:36:19","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T05:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=186498"},"modified":"2018-01-18T13:24:40","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T07:54:40","slug":"rajitha-blasts-presidents-confidante-shiral-lakthilaka-at-cabinet-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajitha-blasts-presidents-confidante-shiral-lakthilaka-at-cabinet-press\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajitha Blasts President&#8217;s Confidante Shiral Lakthilaka At Cabinet Press"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cabinet Spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne fired broadsides at President Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s Coordinating Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Shiral+Lakthilaka\">Shiral Lakthilaka<\/a> during the media conference on cabinet decisions today.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_186485\" style=\"width: 513px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Shiral-Laktilaka-and-Maithripala-Sirisena.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-186485\" class=\"wp-image-186485 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Shiral-Laktilaka-and-Maithripala-Sirisena.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"503\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Shiral-Laktilaka-and-Maithripala-Sirisena.jpg 503w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Shiral-Laktilaka-and-Maithripala-Sirisena-300x190.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 503px) 100vw, 503px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-186485\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lakithilaka and the President<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A journalist had sought the minister\u2019s response to a statement that Lakthilaka had made to the effect that an \u2018interim government\u2019 would be formed immediately after the forthcoming local government elections, to which Senaratne had fired back, \u2018who is Shiral?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>When he was informed that Lakthilaka was the Coordinating Secretary to President Sirisena, Senaratne had angrily asked \u2018Can a coordinating secretary get such things done?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Lakthilaka is said to be among President Sirisena\u2019s closest confidantes to the point that he was one of the emissaries sent by Sirisena to arrange a meeting with Gotabaya Rajapaksa as mentioned in MP Malith Jayatilleka\u2019s book (The January 8th that I saw) in April 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":186485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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