Gampaha district Provincial Councillor H.M.G.B. Kotakadeniya has expressed his displeasure at the Jathika Hela Urumaya’s decision to deny him the nominations to contest the general elections and instead field Ven. Rathana Thera from the Gampaha district.
Mr. Kotakadeniya, former Deputy Inspector General of Police, told the Sunday Times he strongly believed that he was more eligible to be selected as the JHU’s nominee from the Gampaha district to contest the elections on the UPFA ticket than Ven Athreliya Rathana Thera.
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| Kotakadeniya |
“Ven Rathana Thera should have contested from the Kalutara district and not Gampaha from where I was planning to contest,” he said.
Mr. Kotakadeniya who received 47,139 preferential votes and ranked 11th among the 27 members elected from the UPFA at the provincial council elections last year, said he had the backing of the people of the Gampaha district and therefore he believed that he should have been given the nominations.
Mr. Kotakadeniya said he had protested to the party hierarchy over Ven Rathana Thera’s candidacy in the Gamapaha district, but to no avail.
Ven. Rathana Thera in a newspaper interview claimed that he came to Gampaha because the JHU members in district wanted him to contest from there.
However, Mr. Kotakadeniya disputed this claim, saying that the monk was contesting from the Gampaha district because he felt he could not contest from the Kalutara district and win.
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