Holed up in Colombo mansion, ousted PM Wickremesinghe vows to fight

Wickremesinghe, who steered the economy and regularly travelled overseas as Sri Lanka's face to the world, described the political chaos unfolding around him as 'not one, but many steps back'

While entertaining supporters in the picturesque, seaside town of Galle last Friday, Ranil Wickremesinghe received an urgent call from an aide: he’d just been ousted as Sri Lanka’s prime minister.

The news came as a shock to Wickremesinghe, who rushed back to Colombo, the capital -- a brisk two-hour drive. He held a late-night meeting with his party and other parliamentarians at the prime minister’s official residence, a stately white building surrounded by manicured lawns that used to house the British colonial secretary.

“I decided to stay overnight, and the next day people started coming,” he said in an interview on Wednesday