We were wrong about Ranil for 25 years: Udaya Gammanpila

SLPP Colombo district candidate Udaya Gammanpila says that they were wrong to accuse former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of favouring separatism.

"Up until now, we have been accusing Ranil Wickremesinghe of being in favour of separatism. We accused him of trying to destroy the United National Party by appeasing to the Tamil seperatists and to the Muslim extremists. We made this serious allegation for more than 25 years," Gammanpila said at a press briefing today (30).

He said that with the split that resulted in the UNP, they have been able to ponder who really pandered to the separatists and the extremists.

"Now when we look back, it was wrong to accuse him. Although we saw that Muslim extremists and Tamil seperatists like MA Sumanthiran were aligned with the UNP, they have actually been with Sajith Premadasa and not with Ranil Wickremesinghe. Only when these two split did we get to see whose side Hakeem, Mano, Digamabaram and the likes of Sumanthiran were on," he said.