‘I was offered Rs 100 Mn to remain in Govt.' - 

Navin

By Dasun Edirisinghe-December 2, 2014,

UPFA Nuwara Eliya District MP Navin Dissanayake who crossed over to the UNP on Sunday said yesterday that he had been offered Rs. 100 million by the government to remain in the UPFA coalition.

Addressing the media at the Opposition Leader’s office in Colombo flanked by Opposition Presidential Candidate Maithripala Sirisena and UNP National Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Dissanayake said that he had been approached by three persons in a bid to bribe him into changing his mind.

"I am aware several billionaire businessmen are spending their money on behalf of the government to stop Ministers and MPs from crossing over and pledging their support to opposition presidential candidate," he said.

Asked whether they would stay with the government after accepting bribes, Dissanayake said people were different and some would not change their decision to join the opposition while some others might stay with the UPFA after accepting money.

"I could have increased my price if I needed, but I did not betray my policies to continue with a corrupt regime," he said adding that at present the government was in a very difficult situation due to its corruption and irregularities exposed by the opposition in the run up to the election.

Responding to a query as to why the UNP took 20 years to open a portrait of his father, late UNP leader Gamini Dissanayake at Sirikotha, Dissanayake said a photo of his father was there, but his family asked for a new portrait two months ago and present leadership allowed it.

UNP National Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said that late Gamini Dissanayake played a key role in 1977, 1982 and 1988 elections for the victory of the UNP.

He said that Dissanayake did tremendous work to make the Mahaweli accelerated development programme a success.

"Today, his son, Navin joined to support the opposition presidential candidate who is also a leader from the Mahaweli region," Wickremesinghe said adding that they would create a new political culture in the future with the Presidential Election victory.

Opposition common presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena said that Rajapaksa government did not give a rightful place to Navin, but he (Sirisena) had done justice to his father Gamini Dissanayake by continuing his work as the Minister of Mahaweli for 11 years.

Sirisena said that he welcomed Navin’s decision to support him at the presidential election.