Secretary of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Ranjith Madduma Bandara said that there can be no hope for an alliance between the United National Party (UNP) and SJB as long as Ranil Wickremesinghe remains the Leader of the UNP and that the SJB will contest under the “telephone” symbol. Following are excerpts of the conversation: Are you satisfied with the participation of the UNP’s provincial counsillors and grassroots members at the launch event? Of course. Not only provincial counsellors but grassroots members and a percentage of electoral organisers have joined our new party. So we have the support of all of them. Will the resignation of UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam open doors for the SJB to join hands with the UNP again? They haven’t yet announced his resignation. We work for the sake of unity. I think not only his resignation but even my resignation won’t change this. We need to see a change in the leadership of the UNP. The resignation of the Secretary General will not change the leadership of the UNP. If Karu Jayasuriya becomes the prime ministerial candidate from the UNP, do you think that Sajith Premadasa will be able to compete and obtain more votes? The people of the country are asking for Sajith Premadasa. Therefore, we should give them what they want. What’s the SJB’s view of Jayasuriya? From the beginning we said that Karu Jayasuriya should be given the leadership of the UNP, so the party could carry on. The problem people have is with Ranil Wickremesinghe’s leadership. Therefore, we have no issues with Jayasuriya. Is the SJB Constitution a party constitution or an alliance constitution? The Wickremesinghe faction says that it’s only a party constitution. In this country, factions are formed under a party, according to a party constitution – like the JVP (janatha Vimukthi Peramuna). It has been registered as a party and its factions are formed around it. There are only two registered factions. So our question is whether their problem is this party constitution. They didn’t say anything like that in the beginning. What they are trying to do at this moment is to sabotage our alliance. When will you unveil your symbol? And do you think that the “telephone” will be meaningful and attractive to the public? From the very beginning, our symbol was the “telephone”. For the sake of unity, we agreed to take the common symbol of the party. That’s the reason we did not launch the “telephone” as our symbol.  Then they told us that they will give us the “swan” as the symbol. They wanted us to agree to many conditions if we were to take that symbol. Therefore, we couldn’t take that symbol. For the sake of unity, we are hoping to get the common symbol. But if not, we will be competing by choosing the telephone as our symbol. Anyway, it’s our legal symbol. If they want to change it, they can talk to us with regard to that. What is the immediate next step of the SJB? We have now legally informed the Election Commission and we held an inauguration ceremony. Many members of the party joined hands with us. We held many meetings to discuss nominations. By next week, we will finalise it and steps will be taken to hand it over. There are reports that the UNP is requesting some members from your faction to join them and that they will financially reward them. Is that true? Some of our members have been told to join them for money. I think they are in such a situation to do so. I think no one’s ready to join them for money. We are sure that the majority will stay with us and celebrate the victory.(AR)