Plantation Minister Navin Dissanayake has come under fire from the UNP Parliamentary group for being one of the chief architects of the initiative to appoint Speaker Karu Jayasuriya as the UNP Leader and the Prime Minister. 

"He is another son-in-law who will pave the way for the downfall of his father-in-law," the UNP MPs said, criticizing Dissanayake, on the sidelines of the meeting held at Temple Trees, this morning. 

The move, however, has been aborted as it has drawn little support from the Parliamentary group and Working Committee members of the party. 

"This is the third time Jayasuriya tried to backstab the party leader. We cannot move forward with backstabbers and conspirators within our camp. Ironically, all these backstabbers were brought into politics by the Prime Minister," an enraged party MP said, this morning. 

They also stressed that measures should be taken to remove Speaker Jayasuriya from his top post in Parliament, if he attempted 'backroom operations' to oust the Prime Minister who is also the leader of the party.

Dissanayake, the son of former Minister Gamini Dissanayake, is also the son-in-law of Speaker Karu jayasuriya.  

Dissanayake too once crossed over to the Rajapaksa administration and came back to the UNP just before the last Parliamentary election, after a fallout with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

Our attempts to contact Jayasuriya and Dissanayake to get their comments on this matter, did not bear fruit. 

However, the party back-benchers, who met the Prime Minister this morning at Temple Trees, resolved to form an independent UNP government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. 

This decision will be officially conveyed to President Maithripala Sirisena today or tomorrow, highly placed party sources said.