After President Premadasa’s assassination, his widow Hema sought the Colombo Central seat, as its longtime organiser Sirisena Cooray had decided not to contest the 1994 general election. At the same time, Ranil Wickremesinghe—having faced humiliating defeats in Biyagama at the 1993 provincial council elections and again in the Gampaha district—set his sights on contesting from Colombo.
With Cooray’s backing, Ranil appealed to party leader President D. B. Wijetunga for the Colombo Central slot. Together, Ranil and Cooray manoeuvred to remove Hema’s name from the Colombo district nomination list. Hema only discovered her exclusion when she arrived at the Colombo Municipal Council nomination hall.
Although known as a critic of Premadasa, Gamini Dissanayake was uneasy about this treatment of Hema. When he became Opposition Leader and later the UNP’s presidential candidate in 1994, Gamini invited Sajith Premadasa into politics, promising him the Colombo Central seat. But Gamini’s assassination changed everything—Ranil rose as party leader and bluntly told Sajith, “If you want to do politics, go to Hambantota.” Realising Colombo Central would never be given to him, Sajith accepted another constituency and began his political journey in Hambantota.
Sajith’s entry unsettled the Rajapaksa family. To protect their turf, Ranil used Hambantota MPs Mervyn Silva and Ananda Kularatne to undermine him. Despite these attacks, Sajith delivered victories for the UNP in Hambantota in both 2000 and 2001, angering the Rajapaksas further.
When Ranil became Prime Minister, expectations were that Sajith would receive a powerful ministry, but Ranil relegated him to Deputy Minister of Health. Sajith, however, chose patience, believing his time within the party would eventually come.
Following the 2010 election defeat, pressure mounted within the UNP to make Sajith the leader. With President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s help, Ranil crushed the rebellion by compensating and swaying members of the UNP’s central committee to his side. When calls grew for either Karu Jayasuriya or Sajith to contest the 2010 presidential election, Ranil declared that no UNP member would be allowed to run if he himself did not. To block both Karu and Sajith, Ranil struck an understanding with Maithripala Sirisena.
When Maithripala emerged as the common candidate, Chandrika, Mangala and other SLFP figures pushed him forward, sidelining Ranil’s demand to be declared the Prime Ministerial candidate. With Mangala openly stating no PM candidate had been agreed upon, Ranil turned to Sajith.
On campaign stages, Sajith declared that without Ranil being named Prime Minister, the UNP would not back Maithripala. This forced Chandrika, Mangala, and the SLFP to concede, officially nominating Ranil as PM-in-waiting.
After Maithripala’s 2015 victory, Ranil became Prime Minister. But conflicts soon erupted between him and the President. On more than sixty occasions, Maithripala even invited Sajith to take over the premiership—hoping to pave the way for Sajith’s UNP leadership. Yet Sajith refused, unwilling to betray his leader, even when the opportunity lay wide open.
In 2018, Maithripala Sirisena said that Ranil should be removed from the premiership and Sajith should take over, with the blessing of a group of anti-Ranil UNP strongmen.
Sajith refused to stab his leader in the back at that time. When even Ranil’s close aide Mangala said that Sajith should be nominated for the 2019 Presidential Election, Ranil appointed a committee to investigate financial irregularities in the Central Cultural Fund under Sajith’s ministry.
It is well known that Ranil worked with Mahinda to defeat Sajith in the 2019 Presidential Election and that he suppressed files from the Immigration and Emigration Office, which were an obstacle to proving Gotabaya’s Sri Lankan citizenship.
Ranil’s uncle’s newspaper, the Sunday Times, reported that when Sajith lost the presidential election and Ranil lost the Prime Minister’s post, the allegations regarding the Central Cultural Fund were left in a drawer at Temple Trees when Ranil departed.
Mahinda later handed over this file of alleged irregularities to the Bribery Commission. After handing it over, he invited Ranil—who was at home after losing the 2020 general election—to return via the national list. The strategy of Mahinda and the Rajapaksa family was to make Ranil the Opposition Leader and finish off Sajith.
During the aragalaya, when Gotabaya was about to hand over the premiership to Sajith, Mahinda and the Rajapaksa family opposed it. They insisted that Ranil should be appointed instead. Sajith presented conditions for accepting the premiership. Ranil, however, accepted without presenting any conditions and struck a deal with the Rajapaksas.
After becoming President, Ranil incited Anura Kumara, then in the opposition, to attack Sajith. The Sajith–Anura debate became a topic of discussion across the country. At the time, all media institutions expressed willingness to broadcast the debate, but on the condition that both men participated.
Knowing Sajith would not attend a debate hosted by Independent Television, which was under his influence, Ranil arranged for Anura to appear alone and instructed him to finish Sajith. He also planted news that he was going to investigate the Central Cultural Fund allegations against Sajith. Rumours that the Samagi Jana Balawegaya would abandon Sajith and join him were repeated constantly across the media, to Anura’s advantage.
In the 2019 presidential election, Ranil mostly campaigned in the plantation areas, the North and the East—regions with minority populations favourable to Sajith. He even publicly stated that Sajith could not defeat Anura.
Before the postal vote, Anura gave an interview to Independent Television. Around the same time, Thalatha Athukorala abandoned Sajith and came to support Ranil, publicly declaring that Anura would win. Anura and the JVP exploited Thalatha’s defection by claiming Geetha had been chosen over her.
If Ranil had not split Sajith’s minority vote, Sajith might be President today. Ranil believed that once Sajith was defeated, he could rely on Anura to finish Sajith off and then become Leader of the Opposition. However, recalling the terror of 1988–89—when ministers and MPs of the J. R. and Premadasa governments were killed or incapacitated—the JVP still regarded Ranil as a symbol of political repression, accused of running a torture chamber at Batalanda during that period.
The JVP declared that Ranil should be punished for the murder of JVP youth. Once those calculations came to light, Anura’s government began pursuing Ranil.
The result was Ranil’s imprisonment. When Ranil was UNP leader, S. B. Dissanayake defended him and was accused of contempt of court, landing in prison. The party organised a march from S. B.’s village, Hanguranketha, to Colombo to demand his release. Ranil halted the march midway, saying the country’s biggest problem was the cost of living, not S. B.’s case.
When Sarath Fonseka defended Ranil and was imprisoned, Ranil did not participate in any of the protests held on Fonseka’s behalf. Fonseka was left helpless.
“Ranil defeated me. Ranil defeated Anura. Why should we risk our necks for Ranil…?”
When Ranil went to jail, Sajith could easily have said the same. But he did not. The government assumed Sajith and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya would not fight for Ranil. Yet the government grew restless only after Sajith stepped in.
What must Ranil have thought when Anura’s government, which he had once called a friend, jailed him and left him utterly powerless—while Sajith, whom Ranil had long treated as an enemy, came to visit him?
A popular saying circulating on Facebook notes that the last head of state in Sri Lanka to go to prison before Ranil was King Sri Wickreme Rajasinghe, captured by the British with the help of Sinhala elites who betrayed him.
Ranil too had conflicts not only with Sajith but also with the opposition SLFP. But Sajith did not betray Ranil.
Good narrative of back-stabbing Sri Lankan politics. Clearly shows Ranil W is NO SAINT !!!