Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna general secretary Tilvin Silva has rejected reports that an internal party faction is working against Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, describing the claims as a “ridiculous joke” manufactured by political opponents.
Speaking to the state-owned Sinhala newspaper Silumina, Silva dismissed allegations that a group based at the JVP’s headquarters in Pelawatte was attempting to undermine the Prime Minister.
“It is actually very advantageous for us that the opposition behaves like this,” he said. “Relying on baseless fabrications that no one believes only works to their own disadvantage. Even in ten years’ time, that reality will not change.”
The speculation he was responding to concerns a supposed split between the JVP’s traditional Marxist core, headquartered at Pelawatte, and the wider National People’s Power coalition, which draws in civil society figures and academics. Amarasuriya, an academic before entering politics, became Prime Minister after the NPP’s election victory.
Silva rejected the premise that the two can be pulled apart. “You cannot really separate the JVP and the NPP. We are not in a position where a line can be drawn to divide us like a rainbow,” he said, describing relations between the party’s leaders — including President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Amarasuriya — as built on mutual trust and affection.
He pointed to earlier conspiracy theories as evidence of how far opposition narratives had run, citing claims that he and Dissanayake had been planning to poison the Prime Minister. Those claims circulated previously and were raised by Silva as an illustration, not as a current allegation under discussion.
“Our opponents judge the NPP through the lens of their own fractured parties,” he said. “If we operated like them, we would never have made it this far.”
The remarks follow Amarasuriya’s own statement to Parliament on September 24, when she said reports of cracks in the NPP group were false and that the bloc’s unity would be evident in the 22nd Amendment vote. All 158 government members backed the amendment when it passed on September 25.
LankaNewz has not independently verified the Silumina interview. No other Sri Lankan newsroom had reported Silva’s remarks at the time of publication.
