President Plots To Have Karu J Replace Ranil As PM And Bring Gota To Parliament With An Eye To A Second Term
President Maithripala Sirisena is confident that the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be supported by a majority of Parliament and is currently plotting to replace Wickremesinghe with Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, according to sources close to him.
Sirisena also plans to bring Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Parliament through the National List and thereafter seek a second term as President with Gotabaya as the Prime Minister, sources revealed to Colombo Telegraph.
Gota and Maithri
The no-confidence motion is to be taken up for debate on April 4th. At present the United National Party has 106 MPs while the TNA with 16 pledging support to Wickremesinghe. However, it is not clear whether all 106 UNP MPs will vote against the motion. The JVP has already stated that it will support the motion.
The choice of Gotabaya, brother of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa who is Sirisena’s arch rival within the party he leads, the SLFP, owes to the fact that ‘Gotabaya was the only one who urged Mahinda Rajapaksa to appoint Sirisena as Prime Minister before the two fell out and the latter decided to run for President, sources revealed.
