-By LeN Political Editor
(Lanka-e-News -13.May.2025, 11.45 PM) In a stunning political rupture that threatens to destabilise the very foundations of the opposition coalition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), led by Sajith Premadasa, is facing an internal crisis of considerable magnitude following the conclusion of Sri Lanka’s recent local government elections.
The reverberations began in Gampaha—a stronghold of the SJB—when its district organiser, Dr Chanaka Senanayake,( in picture) announced his immediate resignation from both his party post and general membership of the SJB. Speaking at a widely publicised press conference, Senanayake pulled no punches, accusing the party leadership of abandoning its founding principles and “collaborating with the same corrupt forces we once set out to defeat.”
“We joined this movement,” he said, “not to become another shade of the same rot, but to challenge it. Today, I no longer recognise this party.”
His resignation, though long rumoured in political corridors, comes as the clearest sign yet that deep divisions are festering beneath the surface of the Premadasa-led alliance—a coalition once hailed as the only credible alternative to the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP).
The timing is as symbolic as it is strategic. Local government polls—viewed as a litmus test of public sentiment ahead of national elections—exposed not just waning public enthusiasm for the SJB, but also an existential crisis within the party itself. In the days following the poll, murmurs of discontent within the SJB turned into full-throated denunciations.
Senanayake, a respected academic and political analyst-turned-organiser, represents a faction within the SJB that insists the party must remain ideologically clean and reform-oriented. His departure signals the widening schism between those who see the SJB as a vehicle for systemic change, and those who view it as a mere electoral machine.
At the core of his grievance is what he terms “the normalisation of corruption” under Premadasa’s watch.
“We cannot speak of good governance in the morning and sign deals with crooks by evening,” he declared. “This is not reform. This is betrayal.”
Sources close to the Gampaha organiser claim that his frustrations had been mounting for months, particularly after reports surfaced suggesting Premadasa was in discreet negotiations with elements formerly aligned with the Rajapaksa regime—figures widely discredited for their alleged roles in economic mismanagement and political repression.
In what now appears to be a calculated act of political self-immolation, Senanayake’s exit is unlikely to be an isolated case. Insiders hint at several other organisers and district-level operatives contemplating similar moves, which could spell a cascading rebellion within the SJB ranks.
-By LeN Political Editor
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by (2025-05-13 22:16:11)
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