UPFA Matara District MP Dullas Alahapperuma announced that he will be resigning as the Matara District SLFP leader.

Alahapperuma, a key member of the 'Joint Opposition' supporting former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was instrumental in organizing the Jana Satana Paada Yathra from Kandy to Colombo.

A former Minister of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, he returned to Parliament topping the Matara District preferential votes in August 2015, with 105,406 preferential votes.

He said that he took the decision to resign from the SLFP leadership in Matara in opposition to the removal of Kanchana Wijesekara and Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena as party organizers.