Four ministers quit Sirisena government

Four ministers belonging to Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) today resigned from the Maithripala Sirisena government, accusing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of high-handedness and taking control of the ruling coalition.
The four Ministers -- Mahinda Yapa Abewardene, Cabinet Minister in charge of Parliamentary Affairs; Dilan Perera, State Minister for Housing and Samrudhi and SLFP spokesperson; C B Ratanayake, State Minister for Public Administration and Democratic Rule and Pavitradevi Wanniarachchi, Minister of Environment -- in a press conference here announced that they resigned as they could not work with the government.
The four SLFP leaders accused Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and his United National Party (UNP) of political high-handedness and alleged that President Sirisena has no voice in the government.

The former Ministers said that UNP is taking control of the coalition government.
They also said that "it is no use of being the partners of a government which failed to keep the promises given during the election period."
The ministers' resignation indicated former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's influence on the party leaders in his attempt to make a political comeback.

The four SLFP leaders were made ministers by Sirisena, who was the party leader, in April in order to win support for his 100-day reform programme.
Sirisena, who was sacked from SLFP when he challenged Rajapaksa in the January 8 presidential election, was again made the party leader by the former president after his defeat.

However, the SLFP rank and file do not favour Sirisena for his alliance with the arch rival UNP and Rajapaksa has been receiving backing from a section of party leaders to stage a comeback.
At least three of the resigned ministers had appeared along with Rajapaksa in public rallies.