The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna is discussing a major rally intended to rival the recent Anuradhapura event, party MP D.V. Chanaka has said, framing it as a move to pressure the government over unfulfilled promises.

“Today, we also discussed holding a rally — one that rivals the Anuradhapura rally — to urge the Government to fulfil the promises it made to the people,” Chanaka said, according to the Daily Mirror, which reported his remarks on Monday afternoon.

Namal at the centre of the pitch

Chanaka put the party’s imprisoned deputy leader at the centre of the case, and made an explicit electoral claim.

“There are people in this country who hold Namal Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa in high regard. While attempts are being made to imprison Namal Rajapaksa — who is poised to defeat Anura Kumara Dissanayake in 2029 — the people of the country are uniting today to protect him. That is the very initiative currently being set in motion,” he said.

He said a large number of people continued to hold the two SLPP leaders in high regard, and claimed the public was rallying around Namal Rajapaksa despite what he described as attempts to imprison him.

Namal Rajapaksa has been in remand custody since early September, when he was arrested over an alleged Rs. 100 million bribe in the SriLankan Airlines Airbus matter. His bail application in that case was refused last week and his remand extended to 30 September.

Separately, the Bribery Commission named him on Monday as the fourth suspect in its Krrish bribery case, over Rs. 70 million allegedly paid in three instalments in return for help securing Urban Development Authority land at Transworks Square. The Colombo Chief Magistrate ordered him produced from remand on Tuesday 29 September.

Which Anuradhapura rally?

The Daily Mirror’s report does not say whose Anuradhapura rally Chanaka wants to rival, and two were held in the same province on the same day.

The SLPP staged its own “Janasatana” rally in Anuradhapura on 12 September, headlined by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa alongside Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanpila, Tiran Alles and MP Ramanathan Archchuna. That rally was organised on the same stated grounds Chanaka gives here — the government’s failure to address the problems of farmers and the public. Chanaka himself had announced in advance that Mahinda Rajapaksa would lead it. The National People’s Power held a competing event in the North Central Province the same day.

On the plainest reading, Chanaka is proposing to top his own party’s rally rather than the government’s. The Daily Mirror does not say so, and LankaNewz has not confirmed which event he meant.

The size of the SLPP’s September rally was itself contested: photographs circulated as evidence of a record crowd included an image from a Dhaka protest and AI-generated fakes.

Not reported

No date, venue or organiser was given for the proposed rally, and Chanaka did not say who took part in the discussions he referred to. The report, filed by Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama, does not indicate whether the party leadership has approved the plan. No other verified newsroom had carried the remarks at the time of writing.