The parties allied to the Samagi Jana Balawegaya are unhappy with how its leadership is running the Samagi Jana Sandanaya, but none has moved to withdraw support from Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, Tamil Progressive Alliance leader Mano Ganesan has said.
“The alliance between the SJB and its constituent parties is a virtual alliance,” Ganesan told the Daily Mirror. “I deliberately refer to it as a ‘Virtual Alliance’ because the SJB leadership has yet to take any meaningful steps to strengthen and consolidate it.”
He said there had been “repeated calls from several senior figures within the constituent parties, as well as from within the SJB mainstream, for concrete action to reinforce the partnership”, but that “the SJB Leader has not taken the necessary steps to move the alliance forward”.
“Against this backdrop, it is hardly surprising that news reports about SJB allies withdrawing their support for the SJB leadership surface from time to time,” he added.
The TPA is staying
Ganesan said the TPA remains a constituent party under a Memorandum of Understanding signed by himself as TPA leader, deputy leaders Palani Thigambaram and V. Radhakrishnan, Premadasa, and SJB General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara. The party has taken no decision to withdraw, he said.
Bathiudeen denies a pullout
Reports have circulated that All Ceylon Makkal Congress leader Rishad Bathiudeen criticised the SJB leadership at a recent meeting in Kurunegala. Contacted by the Daily Mirror, Bathiudeen denied his party was planning to withdraw support. “The story is false,” he said.
What lies behind the friction
Neither party leader set out his grievance in detail on Tuesday, but the Sunday Times reported on Sunday what each dispute concerns.
Bathiudeen told a public meeting his party is “not a slave” of the SJB, in a complaint centred on Premadasa’s position on Buddhism and on Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera. Ganesan, about a fortnight earlier, wrote to Premadasa expressing dismay at remarks by SJB member Lakshman Kiriella about the Tamil and Muslim communities, made while a delegation was engaging the Buddhist clergy.
The Sunday Times framed the problem for the main opposition as “how it will keep its constituent parties from drifting away”, noting that both parties lean toward the governing NPP and that there is “no guarantee of bloc votes for any party at future elections”.
Not reported
Neither account says how many constituent parties the Samagi Jana Sandanaya has, whether the SJB leadership has responded to Ganesan’s criticism or his earlier letter, or whether any meeting between Premadasa and the allied parties is planned. The SJB had not commented at the time of writing. The Sunday Times does not report Rauff Hakeem or Palani Thigambaram voicing discontent of their own.