• PM Gunawardena, Prof. G.L. Peiris attend Kumaratunga’s event
• Sirisena’s event held at SLFP headquarters

The two groups of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), representing former SLFP Chairperson Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, and incumbent SLFP Chairman Maithripala Sirisena, respectively, had organised two separate events to mark the 104th birth anniversary of slain Prime Minister and SLFP founder S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike yesterday (8), with the event organised by the Kumaratunga-led group seeing the participation of several notable politicians including Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Chairman Prof. G.L. Peiris.

The event organised by the group representing Kumaratunga was held near the Bandaranaike Statue at the Galle Face Green in Colombo, and the event organised by the group representing Sirisena was held at the SLFP Headquarters on Darley Road, Colombo 10 last morning.

Kumaratunga and Sunethra Bandaranaike, Gunawardena, Prof. Peiris, Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva and Mahinda Amaraweera, State Ministers Lasantha Alagiyawanna and Jagath Pushpakumara, Parliamentarians (MPs) including  New Lanka Freedom Party (NLFP) Leader Kumara Welgama, Duminda Dissanayake and Chandima Weerakkody, and former MPs Jeewan Kumaranathunga and Pandu Bandaranaike attended the event at the Galle Face Green. 

Those who attended the event including Kumaratunga and Sunethra Bandaranaike, Premier, Gunawardena, Prof. Peiris and other Ministers and MPs were seen paying floral tributes to the Bandaranaike Statue, after which Gunawardena was seen having a friendly conversation with Kumaratunga and leaving the event.

Meanwhile, speaking to the media after the event, Kumaratunga mentioned that since the SLFP had not organised an event for the birth commemoration of Premier Bandaranaike for several years, they (Bandaranaike family and her supporters) are organising it now. After Sirisena became the leader of the Party, she claimed that the organisation of the event was abandoned, and during the tenure of former President and incumbent MP Mahinda Rajapaksa as the SLFP Chairman, the event was not organised in some years.

Meanwhile, the ceremony organised by the Sirisena-led group to commemorate Premier Bandaranaike was held at the SLFP Headquarters. Sirisena, SLFP General Secretary and MP Dayasiri Jayasekara, SLFP Senior Vice President Prof. Rohana Luxman Piyadasa, and several others participated in it.

Speaking at the event, Sirisena said: “Bandaranaike was able to bring about a great social, economic, political, and cultural transformation during the three years he ruled the country. He was a leader who was following the middle path. The problem today is that young people do not understand what Bandaranaike's vision is. Especially the young people who were in the ‘aragalaya’ (people's struggle) knowingly or unknowingly demanded that the country should be governed according to Bandaranaike's vision. Many people do not know that they are asking for Bandaranaike's vision, but the underside of today's public demands is that.”

When queried about the organisation of another event in addition to the one held at the Galle Face Green, he said that many people did not want to participate in the event at the Galle Face Green due to the intense heat there. Taking such views into account, he said, it was decided to hold the commemoration in an air-conditioned hall instead of the Galle Face Green.

The SLFP recently decided to suspend the party membership of its onetime leader, Kumaratunga, and all SLFP members and SLPP-elected MPs who recently accepted Cabinet and State Ministerial positions contrary to the decision of the Central Committee of the SLFP. Following the suspension of their party membership, the SLFP has split into two groups which support Sirisena, and Kumaratunga, and the group that accepted Ministerial posts respectively.