CWC’s support for Gotabaya boomerangs on to his campaign for presidency 

SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned to Colombo on Friday night after a visit to Singapore for medical reasons.

He is now continuing his campaign for the  presidency which has been buoyed by the announcement of Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) support for SLPP.

Presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe framed the contest for the Presidency between the social democratic forces of their side arrayed against a feudal, nepotistic formation represented by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.

However, the support of  Rauff Hakeem’s Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the upcountry estate vote of  Palani Digambaran’s and Mano Ganesan’s Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) is crucial to win the presidential race as Thondaman’s CWC vote base has dwindled to a great extent at present, political analysts said.

The Tamil population in the country is over 3.2 million. Nearly 50% out of this population, that is about 1.5 million, live outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces, namely the Central, Western, Sabaragamuwa, Uva, Southern and North-Western Provinces.

They live mainly in the Districts of Nuwara-Eliya, Kandy, Matale, Colombo, Kalutara, Gampaha, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Badulla, Moneragala, Galle and Puttalam.

The majority of the Tamil voters in those areas are supporters of Palani Digambaran’s and Mano Ganesan’s Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA).

In this context, Gotabaya has nothing to rejoice following the CWC’s decision to support his campaign as Thondaman’s party has already become a zeroed party among the Tamil community, political analysts claimed.

Joining hands with the CWC will be a bad omen for Gotabaya who has so far failed to impress the masses during his ineffective political speeches and lack luster public appeal, election intelligent reports revealed.      

For Sajith Premadasa, the New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate, the challenge no doubt, is going beyond mustering crowds for public rallies. He must go for the votes and that will be most decisive for him.

The campaigns are now heating up. As such, he has to sustain the moral boost he received from the massive show of public support at the Galle Face rally and shoulf focus on being more rationale and practical with regard to his statements in public platforms, they advised.