President's Counsel Maithri Gunaratne says that there does not appear to be a big difference between the current initiatives of the leader of the Samagi Jana
Balawegaya (SJB) Sajith Premadasa and the initiatives of United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The veiled criticism from Maithri Gunaratne regarding Sajith Premadasa, his school mate for several years at S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, was revealed in an interview with the 'Asian Mirror' website.
Maithri Gunaratne, who contested from the Badulla District under the SJB in the last general election, received more preferential votes than SJB's Badulla district leader Ravi Samaraweera, Lakshman Seneviratne and former opposition leader of the Uva Provincial Council R.M. Rathnayake.
According to internal party sources, several people with personal affiliations to Sajith Premadasa have objected to handing them posts within the party.
Shiral, Maithri and Keerthi, who played a major role in the formation of the 'good-governance' government, missed out on receiving nominations from the UNP to contest the 2015 parliamentary elections due to the support extended to Sajith Premadasa.
Furthermore, they were overlooked for positions in all UNP led ministries but were given top posts later on by the then President Maithripala Sirisena.
