Thalatha Athukorala resigns as Member of Parliament

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Ratnapura District MP Thalatha Athukorala announced in Parliament today (August 21) that she will resign as a Member of Parliament.

MP Athukorala stated that she opposed the decision of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, to form the SJB and criticized it as political suicide.

Athukorala expressed her deep concern about the recent split within the United National Party (UNP).

She said that the party once united is now divided as both the current leader and the former deputy leader are competing for the Presidential Election.

She said, this division comes at a time when unity is important for the party.

She called the decision to split the party selfish and shortsighted, saying it ignores the country’s future and warned that history will prove it wrong. Athukorala stressed that staying silent would make her complicit in this mistake.

Representing Ratnapura, she declared her intention to take decisive action, respecting the mandate given to her by her constituents, and suggested that letting go of a parliamentary seat should be seen as a burden.

Athukorala stressed that when looking ahead to the 2024 presidential election the issue is about whether the party stands united or divided, not about individual leaders.

She recalled her support for Sajith Premadasa becoming deputy leader a decade ago and leaving the party with him out of faith in his leadership.

However, she expressed confusion over Premadasa’s refusal to unite with Ranil Wickremesinghe despite repeated invitations.

She questioned whether Premadasa’s eagerness to become president might be premature and pointed to historical examples of leaders who showed the importance of patience in politics.

Drawing comparisons to Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s downfall, she warned against relying on artificial popularity without a clear plan and urged politicians to learn from Rajapaksa’s mistakes, which led to national division and his political downfall.

Thalatha Athukorala, the sister of the late UNP politician Gamini Athukorala, entered Parliament in 2004 and was re-elected in 2010, 2015, and 2020 from the Ratnapura District.

In the 2020 general election, she won her seat in Parliament as an SJB member with 45,105 votes from Ratnapura.