Four more UNPers join Government, JHU cannot be bought over

The atmosphere in the Parliament, inside and outside the Chamber, was charged with tension when the UNP member Mahinda Ratnatilaka was sworn in as Deputy Minister of Industries.

Later in the afternoon yesterday three other UNP members, Mohamed Mahroof (Colombo District), T. Maheswaran (Colombo District) and the senior UNP member and former minister Gamini Jayawickrama Perera had met President Rajapaksa at Temple Trees and indicated their willingness to join the government, parliamentary sources said.

In the morning, the mood in the House was tense and small groups of Government and Opposition members were having animated conversations. The Opposition seemed to be in a buoyant mood with the rumour that four JHU members, Buddhist monks, had decided to leave the government and vote against the Budget’s second reading vote scheduled for next Monday (19).

But the JHU hosted a press conference and strongly denied that the four monks named by a certain radio station were joining the Opposition. The leader of the party Ven Ellawala Medhananda Nayake Thera said it was a conspiracy hatched by the LTTE with certain international forces and some UNPers had offered large sums of money to the four monks of the JHU in an effort to get them to cross over and vote against the Budget.

He said no member of the JHU will cross over to the Opposition or vote against the Budget.

However, when the news about the four UNP members reached the House, it was observed that some of the UNP members who were in a buoyant mood in the morning suddenly became silent and pensive. Some of them hurriedly had a few words with their colleagues and left the chamber.

The fourth day of the Budget debate yesterday was a lacklustre affair as most of the members present in the House were either having conversations with others of their own parties or moving in and out of the Chamber most of the day.

Island