Gammanpila Says He Will Support President - Newspaper Magnate does the brokering

JHU Deputy General Secretary Udaya Gammanpila has switched his allegiance a short while ago.

He arrived at the SLFP Headquarters, a short while ago, to address a press briefing with senior members of the ruling party. Speaking to reporters, Gammanpila he decided to extend support to President Rajapaksa, at the forthcoming presidential election.

Gammanpila also said he would resign from the Jathika Hela Urumaya and become a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Gammanpila is one of the most senior and founding members of the JHU.

Addressing the press conference, he also added that he could not support the efforts of the UNP to regain power. He dubbed it as the main reason for his defection from the Jathika Hela Urumaya.

Gammanpila is a member of the Western Provincial Council and held a ministerial portfolio until the JHU decided to defect from the government ahead of the presidential election.

It is learnt that a businessman-Parliamentarian of the opposition, who was also instrumental in the crossover of Tissa Attanayake, played a major role behind Gammanpila crossover.

ruling party sources told Asian Mirror on Thursday that the WPC member will be restored in his ministerial portfolio in the near future.

According to his biography that is available online, Gammanpila was active in politics since his schooling days at D.S. Senayake College where it is alleged that he actively participated in the 88-89 insurrection by the JHU, he has neither admitted nor denied this fact, however his principal of the school at the time, R.I.T. Alles, has mentioned in his autobiography “My Life” that Udaya actively participated in the JVP organized student protests. he has claimed that he was a student leader of the Communist Party