While claiming that former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena were responsible for what had happened to the SLFP, former President and incumbent Patron of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga said that she is also responsible for what has happened to the SLFP.

Issuing a special statement to mark the 69th anniversary of the SLFP, former President Kumaratunga said she had been saddened by the present fate of the SLFP, which was formed by the late Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and later strengthened by Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

“I think I am also responsible for what has happened to the SLFP, today. It is not because of what I did, but because of what I did not do. I am the person who revitalised the SLFP, which was on a losing streak for 17 years. The SLFP was able to remain in power for 23 consecutive years because of what we started.”

Kumaratunga said that she had returned to politics in 2015 at the request of the late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera, a number of political parties and civil society organisations, after a long absence from politics as she needed to put an end to the destruction of the country and where the SLFP was heading at that time.

“Many people today say that I joined the UNP. In 2015, we formed a massive alliance with a large number of civil society organizations and a number of Tamil and Muslim parties. That alliance included both the UNP and the SLFP.”

Although she and a group of others had presented a broader vision in 2015, Sirisena who came to power in 2015 completely had destroyed that programme, the former President said. Both leaders who came to power after her were responsible for what had happened to the SLFP, she said.

“One leader who came to power after me even put my life at risk. At a time when Velupillai Prabhakaran had warned that he would kill me, that leader removed my security within 24 hours. He did all that because I was the only living Bandaranaike family member who could rebuild the SLFP. Also, the Bandaranaike policies of the party were ruined due to various criminals who linked him to the SLFP,”

Further emphasising that a party like the SLFP could not be destroyed, Kumaratunga said that she was committed to strengthening the SLFP with the help of the youth.