By Roshan Ranasinha is a politician who has always made his mark firing salvos and confrontation. Now it is time to look at his scorecard after the big match played at the Diyawannawa. Speculation is rife that Minister of Sports Roshan Ranasinghe may not continue with the portfolio he is currently holding and would resign or be removed.
It was also reported that the minister has already had a discussion with opposition leader Sajith Premadasa at his office in Parliament. It is not a bad move when many ruling party parliamentarians are well aware that retaining a seat is not going to be easy at the next election.
Roshan Ranasinghe made headlines when he challenged President Maithripala Sirisena. Both of them were from Polonnaruwa. He clashed with Maithripala fearlessly as soon as he took over as president. When the all-powerful Sirisena ignored his complaint, he raised a privilege question in Parliament, saying that Sirisena and his brother Dudley Sirisena were harassing him.
In 2010, Roshan Ranasinghe polled 56,223 votes, which was quite an achievement, while Maithripala polled 90,118. The next time Roshan Ranasinghe fought a bitter battle against Sirisena and narrowed the gap. Maithripala, the former president, got 111,137 votes, while Roshan Ranasinghe got 90,615 votes. The gap had been narrowed to 20,522 votes. Roshan Ranasinghe had to be satisfied with a Minister of State for organic fertilizers at a time when chemical fertilizer imports were banned and the production of organic fertilizer was a flop. However, compared to Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage, he escaped the bad press by largely keeping his mouth shut.
Speculation is rife that Minister of Sports Roshan Ranasinghe may not continue with the portfolio he is currently holding and would resign or be removed.
Minister Ranasinghe earlier said he offered to resign from the post when he met President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Supporting Ranil Wickramasinghe
On April 2, 2022, just before the ‘Aragalaya,’ he made a strategic move by resigning his state ministerial post, asking President Gotabaya Rajapaksha to compensate the farmers who lost their crops due to the use of organic fertilizers. Roshan Ranasinghe was at the forefront of supporting Ranil Wickramasinghe, and he was rewarded with a ministerial portfolio in sports.
However, Ranil Wickramasinghe made a mistake by interfering with the Sports Ministry matters, and this annoyed Roshan Ranasinghe, but he was patient.
Roshan sensed that the Sri Lanka Cricket issue is something that could be exploited, as most of the general public was in his favor. With the help of Sajith Premadasa, who was looking around to demonstrate his leadership skills, Roshan was able to rally around the majority of parliamentarians across the board in well-planned maneuvers. His presentation of “facts” was articulate, and he carefully avoided wide balls or distractions and did not get caught in any of them.
It is a matter of time before Roshan Ranasinghe makes his next strategic move, which may is a move to the opposition.
