• If given the UNP general secretary opportunity, would love to have it
• Had no intention of breaking up UNP; tried to keep everyone together
• Tried to unite UNP and SJB several times, but could not do it alone
• Everyone had to pay for sins committed during the Rajapaksa regime
• SJBers forced to vote for unknown person as president in Parliament 
• President Wickremesinghe has put the country back to normal
• SJB decisions are made single-handedly; no one is being consulted

Having resigned from Parliament on 21 August after delivering a fiery speech peppered with charges against Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa and condemning his refusal to support President Ranil Wickremesinghe, former SJB MP Thalatha Atukorale has decided to return to the Wickremesinghe-led United National Party (UNP) – the party with which she commenced her political journey two decades ago.

Responding to a question by The Sunday Morning on whether she would return to the UNP fold, she said: “Yes. I am saying it for the first time. I will help the President’s campaign in whatever way I can and I will go back to the party.”

Speculation was rife at the time of writing that Atukorale would be offered the coveted post of UNP general secretary – an opportunity she said she would embrace. “Up to now no one has contacted me from the UNP in this regard. There has been speculation about it. However, given the opportunity, I would love to have it,” she told The Sunday Morning on Friday (30 August).

Atukorale is the sister of the late Gamini Atukorale – who was a General Secretary and Assistant Leader of the UNP – and came into active politics in 2004 following his sudden death in 2022 due to cardiac arrest. Winning her seat in Parliament contesting from the Ratnapura District, the former MP, an Attorney-at-Law, has held several ministerial positions over the years and was Sri Lanka’s first female Justice Minister (2017). 

In the course of the interview, she spoke on why she left the SJB, issues relating to its leadership, discontent within the party – especially among the original SJBers who left the UNP in support of Premadasa – and not being consulted or heard by the party leadership, which she accused of taking decisions in an arbitrary manner.

Following are excerpts:

Following your decision to resign from your parliamentary seat, what have you decided to do in terms of your political career – is it over or will you be continuing in politics?

I am continuing in politics. Even in Parliament during my speech and after that I have maintained that I am going to continue in politics.

Are you going to rejoin the UNP?

Yes. I am saying it for the first time. I will help the President’s campaign in whatever way I can and I will go back to the party. 

I decided this because there are a lot of people – at the last election I got over 45,000 votes to get into Parliament – who spoke to me after my resignation who have stood by me. It’s not a massive number – anyone can say ‘because the people wanted me’ – but I have to listen to the people who have stood by me for the last 20 years. 

When they came to meet me last weekend, I told them I had three options: give up politics and be at home, join the President, or join another political party. The preference was for me to help the President win this election. I gave some thought to it and decided to help the President. 

There is talk about you being appointed as the general secretary of the UNP – a post your brother Gamini Atukorale once held. Will you accept this post if it is offered to you?

Of course. Up to now no one has contacted me from the UNP in this regard. There has been speculation about it, but it’s news to me. However, given the opportunity, I would love to have it. 

I know how my brother worked tirelessly as the General Secretary to bring the defeated UNP into power and how he used to balance things on behalf of everyone. When everyone started attacking him, he took it very nicely, covered for the Leader, and did everything well.

I have to tell you, if I am given the opportunity, I would love it.

When resigning from your seat in Parliament, you made some allegations against SJB Leader Premadasa. Why did you think Premadasa was a good leader at the time you left the UNP and joined the SJB and what changed?

It’s a long story. It was not about breaking up the UNP, but way back, soon after the war, the party was in a very bad situation. No one knew the things that the Leader of the UNP had done as Prime Minister to settle the problem in the north and east. Anyway the Rajapaksa regime decided to go for this war and after the war the country was on a very bad wicket. 

I, along with a very few people – fewer than the number of fingers – wanted to bring Premadasa as the deputy leader because everybody had a lot of confidence and trust in the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa. That was the beginning, but I had no intention of breaking up the party.

I always tried to keep everyone together. My first effort was after he was appointed as the Deputy Leader in 2013. When Ranjith Madduma Bandara completed 25 years in Parliament, I organised a function for him in Monaragala, where all the leaders came on stage to felicitate him. I wanted people to see everyone together on one stage, but I don’t think I was successful. Then during the Uva Provincial Elections, they all came onto the stage but again we had a few issues. 

We came into government after the next poll and the party cadre was working tirelessly. At that time the country was not in good shape but we still did our best to make everyone happy. Then in 2019 we stood for the Presidential Election with Premadasa as the candidate. Soon after the elections, we wanted to contest under the elephant symbol and have Premadasa as the prime ministerial candidate. 

I was a Working Committee member of the UNP at that time and I requested the Leader of the party not to do things that would break up the party. I knew it was happening but there was so much opposition from the UNP, from some people who were there, who wanted to see us out of the party. When it was decided, I really didn’t know we were going to break up but I knew it would happen at some point. 

I was supportive of Premadasa to make him the Deputy Leader so I knew I had to stand with the others – including Mangala Samaraweera and Malik Samarawickrama – but I never took a lead role. Someone can always say that we joined the SJB just to get into Parliament. That is not the truth. There are so many senior Cabinet ministers who held portfolios in the ‘Yahapalana’ Government who got defeated even after contesting under the SJB.

It was I who went to see President Wickremesinghe when he was no one – he was out of Parliament and just at home, retired. I was the first person from the SJB who visited him and I proposed that we should put these two parties together. From that time onwards I have tried it several times, but I could not do it single-handedly. I then realised that it had happened because of other reasons, because they wanted to have a separate party of their own. They didn’t have the same feeling that I had for the UNP.

In your resignation speech, you said that Premadasa was impatient and did not have a proper plan. However, he always says he has the best team. In that context, don’t you think that the proper decisions and policies can be implemented regardless of his alleged shortcomings?

I would have said yes during 2019 or 2020. Then, the majority of the UNPers – everyone from the newcomers to the senior people who held portfolios like Finance, i.e. Samaraweera – walked out. But with the present situation, I would say no. We never expected the kind of things that happened in 2022 – the ‘Aragalaya’ and bankruptcy and so on. Everyone had to pay for sins that were committed during the Rajapaksa regime.

Wickremesinghe took over as Prime Minister, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ran away, Wickremesinghe took over as Acting President, and was then elected by the MPs as President. At that time we were forced to vote for a person who was not even known to us. I had not even spoken more than two or three words to that person.

Simply due to the reason that Premasada decided not to contest against Wickremesinghe and gave it to someone else, we were asked to vote for that person. It is only now that I know that the majority of the people who were with the SJB then – and even those who are still seated with the SJB – voted for Wickremesinghe. They picked the person they had known for years, whereas I kept with the party decision to vote for a person I did not know. 

Then I thought ‘enough is enough’. It is not a decision that I took overnight. Especially after the 2022 scenario, I was contemplating how we could put our country together. For that, everyone has to get together, including those who brought this country into this position. I cannot understand everyone going their own way and trying to be the president without any background. 

As a UNPer – actually as a former UNPer, as I have yet to get my membership – I am very proud to say that President Wickremesinghe, whatever said and done, has put the country back to normal. I would not say that everything is perfect; there is a lot to be done within the next five years. I think he should continue his presidency for the sake of the country. 

There are many disgruntled SJBers as a result of dissident SLPPers with chequered pasts joining the party and complaints are rife that organiser posts are being given to them in an arbitrary manner by the Party Leader and his loyalists. Is this true?

I have never attended a single Working Committee meeting of the SJB. When we started it had a very democratic phase, but later on I understood that it was handled single-handedly. I don’t think anyone is happy about it.

I won’t speak about the newcomers, but the people who have been there for some time – people who broke away from the UNP – will always wonder whether the right thing is happening in line with their conscience. I know how fed up they are and how sad they are about the situation. I am sorry to say that the only thing they are looking at is coming back to Parliament during the next election.

How do you feel about former members of the Viyathmaga who were former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s advisers joining the SJB fold? Did you tell the party leadership your views and what was the response?

We were never asked about anyone. Take, for example, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka; when he was made the Chairman of this party, no one knew. When other people from the forces were taken in, he was not even consulted. 

He had a valid reason to leave the party. If the Chairman is not considered, how can I be considered and how can others be considered? It is not we who made Fonseka the Chairman.

What are your predictions for the Presidential Poll?

My prediction is that something will happen for the best of the country.