Sack me if you can, Wasantha tells UNP

State Minister Wasantha Senanayake says he will not quit his ministerial post and challenged the United National Party (UNP) to remove him from the party if possible.

He made these remarks addressing a press conference held at Colombo today (30).

Senanayake said that he changed his mind of resigning from politics after the recent developments.

He says that he had already typed out a letter of resignation from his ministerial post and that it was supposed to be presented to the President this morning.

However, since the United National Party (UNP), last night (29), had made the decision to strip him of his party membership, he changed his mind and deemed the letter invalid.

“Now, I will not resign. I will stay in this Ministry. Worked today, will work tomorrow, and will continue to come to work.

Only President Maithripala Sirisena can sack me from this post. He is the one who gave me this post. Not anyone else.”

Senanayake says that he has not been told what the charges against him are.

“As far as I know, I just asked a question, thinking this was a democratic country.

Some talk of a dictatorship. I wonder where the dictatorship is if I can’t even pose a question.”

Meanwhile, the Party Chairman called him claiming that this decision was taken by a mistake, said Senanayake.

“I replied to him saying that, if this is a mistake, please issue a press release. There is no point telling me.”

The Minister says he was planning to resign completely from politics as his questions didn’t receive a response he was hoping for.

“However, since they said I will be removed from the party, I will not leave. I will stay and let’s see if they can sack me.”

Senanayake said that he previously planned to support presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa as a general civilian after his resignation.

“Although I still have love and trust for Sajith Premadasa, I have no trust in the rest of the group. Their goals were clear after last night.

Can anyone take such a decision without a charge sheet? Anyone can suspend the party membership. But the membership cannot be revoked. There are procedures for it. If they aren’t followed, we too have ways.

I, at any point, have not mentioned that I will support a different candidate. However, now I will have to consider that as well.

I have not been sacked from the party. It is a lie. A sudden decision cannot chase away a person from the party overnight.

Senanayake says that he is willing to resign from his post if President Maithripala Sirisena requests it.

“They were afraid that I was going to declare my support to Gotabaya Rajapaksa at today’s press conference. That’s why they hurried last night to muddy my name and to make me seem like a person who was chased away from the party.”

He says that today’s UNP isn’t a party of late Prime Minister and party founder D. S. Senanayake.

“But we chose to back Sajith Premadasa with the hope that we would be able to attain that era once again”, he said.

Minister Senanayake said that although he hasn’t made a concrete decision on what will be done in the upcoming days, he will either support Sajith Premadasa or make a political decision.

The UNP yesterday (29) stripped the party membership from Wasantha Senanayake with immediate effect.

Wasantha Senanayake, great-grandson of UNP founder D. S. Senanayake, is the current State Minister of Foreign Affairs in the UNP-led government.

He had recently written a letter to UNP deputy leader and presidential candidate of New Democratic Front (NDF) Sajith Premadasa, expressing his concerns with regard to the latter’s election campaign.

In a recent media briefing, he also demanded answers from Premadasa for questions put forward by him regarding the role certain ministers will play in a future government.