Fonseka isolated and sent to political wilderness.

Sarath Fonseka gets isolated and all those whom he expected to support him drop him like a hot iron and send him to the political wilderness.

Sarath Fonseka, the defeated Presidential Candidate of the 2010 Presidential Election, addressing a meeting in Kurunegala a few days ago called for all opposition politicians to attend a rally he was organizing to be held on Thursday (18) as a joint opposition rally.  When many politicians including some opportunist politicians in the United National Party welcomed his proposed meeting, Fonseka held high hopes of coming to the limelight of Sri Lankan politics.

His former partners and colleagues in his own party Democratic National Alliance, the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna fired the first salvo against his proposal by taking a Politbureau decision to boycott the rally.

Despite the JVP stance, Fonseka counted on the support of the United National Party.  Sajith Premadasa changed his initial support and distanced from the rally

The General Secretary of the United National Party Tissa Attanayake addressing a media conference in Colombo on the 16th strongly criticized him and accused him of attempting to divide the UNP.  He said that Sarath Fonseka is ungrateful and has forgotten the past within a short period.  He said that Fonseka has no right to interfere in the internal affairs of the United National Party, and questioned why he cannot get the support of the JVP although JVP members in the present Parliament are representing Parliament from his own party the Democratic National Alliance.    He said that Fonseka has forgotten the dedication and sacrifices made by the United National Party on his behalf during the last Presidential Election.

Attanayake explained that the Working Committee of the party has decided that the UNP members should not attend this proposed meeting and emphasized that stern disciplinary action will be taken against any UNP member holding any of the posts if  he or she attended this proposed rally

There were speculations however that despite the UNP working committee decision the former Deputy Leader of the UNP Karu Jayasuriya will attend the rally as he was campaigning for the rally and this expectation was also shattered by Karu Jayasuriya changing his decision at the last moment. Apart from prominent UNPers Fonseka also failed to get his own DNA MPs Tiran Alles and Arjuna Ranatunga to attend the rally and these MPs publicly declared that they will not attend.

Only three United National Party MPs Palitha Range Bandara, Palitha Thewarapperuma and Ashoka Abeysinghe attended the rally, and they now remain suspended from the party for their action against the working committee decision.

Political analysts say that yesterday’s rally was the poorly attended rally in the recent political history of Sri Lanka. (niz)