Former Kalutara District parliamentarian Lalith Ellawala has joined Sarvajana Balaya, the party led by entrepreneur and MP Dilith Jayaweera.
Ellawala, who previously served as the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) chief organiser for Bandaragama, has been appointed the party’s deputy district leader for Kalutara and a member of its supreme council.
His letter of appointment was formally presented at the Sarvajana Balaya headquarters by Jayaweera, Ada Derana reported.
The party said Ellawala’s experience and contribution are expected to strengthen its political and organisational work in the Kalutara District as it pursues what it described as a new political journey centred on the people.
Continued movement from the SLPP
The appointment is the latest instance of former SLPP figures moving into Sarvajana Balaya’s district structures. The party earlier this month recruited an SLPP organiser in Nawalapitiya, part of a pattern of local-level defections from the once-dominant party since its collapse at the 2024 elections.
Sarvajana Balaya was formed in 2024 as an alliance led by Jayaweera. It failed to win a constituency seat at the 2024 parliamentary election and holds a single national list seat, taken by Jayaweera himself. The party has since concentrated on rebuilding a district organiser network, largely drawing on politicians left outside parliament after the SLPP’s defeat.
Ellawala was among a group of former MPs who wrote to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in June over the treatment of former State Intelligence Service chief Suresh Sallay, a cross-party intervention that drew several signatories from the former SLPP camp now operating outside parliament.
Sarvajana Balaya should not be confused with the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), the main opposition party led by Sajith Premadasa.
