Former Minister Ranjan Ramanayake who was pardoned by President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently says it was Ministers Harin Fernando and Manusha Nanayakkara who took the lead in securing his release.

Following his release from the Welikada prison last week, Ramanayake attended several events. At one event he said “Harin Fernando and Manusha Nanayakkara were the first to come forward to fight for me. Many other people said that this is not a national issue. These two got a visa and went to Geneva on my behalf. Only these two went but there were forty others in the parliament. It was also in their promises to the people and they have accomplished that today. I can't forget that. They did it themselves”.

Ramanayake made an accusation and stated that although there were 40 MPs of the SJB in parliament only Harin Fernando and Manusha Nanayakkara went to Geneva at their own expense to fight for his release.

Ranjan Ramanayake despite running for elections under the SJB it is implied from his comments to the media that his opinion has changed about the party.

The reason for that is that Ranjan Ramanayake appears to believe that Manusha Nanayakkara and Harin Fernando made a greater intervention on his behalf than Sajith Premadasa.

Accordingly, Ramanayake has accepted the position of Goodwill Ambassador for the welfare and promotion of expatriate workers granted to him by Nanayakkara.

Therefore the question remains if Ramanayake will not take a different turn in his political journey to move away from Premadasa and work together with Nanayakkara and Fernando instead.