Colombo (News1st) – The sixteen Sri Lanka Freedom Party members who defected from the Government, have joined the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. However, according to Minister of Social Empowerment P. Harrison, they will roam for a few days before going back and “falling on President Maithripala Sirisena’s lap”.

The Minister stated that those who left the government, “should leave everything else behind”.

Speaking on the matter, UPFA MP Dilan Perera stated that the 16 SLFP members and the 54 members before them crossed over “with the permission of President Maithripala Sirisena as the president as well as the leader of the alliance”.

MP Perera added that Duminda Dissanayake “cannot change anything” as he is not the general secretary. He went on to say that “the current secretary cannot change it because he is not even a member of the SLFP.” The MP claimed that the current secretary is a member of a communist party.

The September 5th Protest

Commenting on the recent JO protest in Colombo, MP Dilan Perera stated that there were errors in the coordination of the protest. “They did not go in a disciplined manner when they were marching opposite the party head office”, he said.

“People in the buses asked us where to go. They was no proper meeting place. There were mistakes. We have to take note of those mistakes and carry out things and that day is not far away.”, added MP Dilan Perera. He also said that he thinks President Maithripala Sirisena will listen to the voice of the protest and create a new government before the next protest.

“Then Ranil Wickremesinghe will have to hold the protest,” he added.

The expired milk packets

Deputy Minister of Social Empowerment Ranjan Ramanayake hit back at MP Wimal Weerawansa’s accusations at Mujibur Rahman, regarding an allegation that Rahman’s supporters distributed poisoned milk packets among JO protestors.

“We do not know whether he has expired milk packets in his house. As far as I know, there are expired Birth Certificates at his house. There are people who changed their age by renewing their Identity cards and Passports. He has various expired tablets inside his house called Viagra.”

Deputy Min. Ramanayake said that he believes Wimal Weerawansa knows about expired milk more than anyone and added that if there is an inquiry about expired milk, Wimal Weerawansa should be appointed as the Chairperson of that committee.