Sri Lanka’s president Anura Kumara Dissanayake claimed that a prominent Tamil political leader has expressed interest in collaborating with the National People’s Power (NPP) after the upcoming general elections, as various Tamil parties called on the president to honour longstanding demands.
The announcement was made during a gathering of NPP candidates in Thalawathugodai on Sunday.
“We are going through a transition phase of gaining strong political power,” said Dissanayake. “Some decisions and actions require robust political authority.”
He then discussed the fleeting nature of political dominance in recent years, pointing out how previous presidents who secured significant parliamentary majorities, such as Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2010 and Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2020, quickly lost their power. He warned that simply winning parliamentary seats does not guarantee lasting political strength.
In this context, Dissanayake’s mention of potential cooperation with a Tamil leader takes on added significance. “A well-known leader from the North informed me that his party is willing to work with the National People’s Power after the general elections,” he said.
Dissanayake also claimed that “even if this party does not choose to cooperate, the people of the North have already signalled their readiness to work with us.”
After Dissanayake was elected president last month, both the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) leader elect S. Shritharan called on him to embrace devolving power to the Tamil nation.
