Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Chief Government Whip Prasanna Ranatunga alleged that there is a conspiracy being orchestrated by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), affiliated to the political Opposition and the Tamil diaspora, to isolate the politicians of the Government and to oust them from politics under the guise of conducting an “aragalaya” (struggle). Speaking to the media, he alleged that representatives of NGOs associated with the main Parliamentary Opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), as well as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) and the Tamil diaspora are behind this conspiracy. “This conspiracy is being carried out due to the fear of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s (SLPP) political opinion,” the Minister said. “The targets of this conspiracy are the SLPP politicians who represent the Government, and the aim of this is to prevent them from going among the people and to defeat the political opinion of the party in the upcoming elections.” The Minister alleged this in a special discussion held with SLPP MPs and the Heads of Local Government Bodies in the Gampaha District, regarding the upcoming political programme in the district. Ranatunga, commenting further, said that the pressure felt by the people due to the shortage of fuel, gas, and electricity, was turned to these parties’ advantage by conspiratorial political parties and groups. “The target of the violent incidents that occurred in the country on 9 May and 9 July were politicians representing the ruling party. They cannot stop our political ideology by burning houses and threatening people. We must stand up stronger than ever. Therefore, we should start politics from the village again. We are not ready to do politics the way that political conspirators want. The real situation of this struggle and conspiracy should be explained to the people. “We chose United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe for the Presidency because he is the most suitable option for that right now. It is not possible to hold a Presidential or General Election at this time. There is no good economic situation for that. Therefore, we had to find a Constitutional solution to this problem. That is why Wickremesinghe got the support of the SLPP to become the President. “The SLPP is the political party that still has the majority in Parliament. That's why no one can ignore the opinion of our party, regardless of the proposed all-party Government. Some defeated political parties and groups say that there is no mandate for the SLPP now. Our mandate still stands. The only thing is that we are silent. Now is the time to break that silence. So we should get back up from where we fell and defeat the conspiracies.”