Labourer’s son, party pro-China… Know who is Anura Disanayake, who became the new President of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka New President: There has been a big upset in the presidential election in Sri Lanka. Marxist leader Anura Disanayake has won here. He said in a post on Instagram that this is a victory for everyone. This will be the first time that a leftist leader will hold the post of President in Sri Lanka. After his victory, Disanayake called for national unity and said, “The unity of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and all Sri Lankans is the basis for a new beginning.”

Dissanayake beats the giants

He expressed hope for a new beginning to realize the aspirations of the country. Sri Lanka’s Election Commission formally announced that 55-year-old Dissanayake won Saturday’s election with 42.31 percent of the vote, while opposition leader Sajith Premadasa came second and Wickremesinghe came third.

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party leader Dissanayake was born in a labourer’s house away from the capital Colombo. He entered student politics in the 80s. Dissanayake joined the JVP during the 1987 to 1989 agitation against the government and then went on to create his own identity.

Dissanayake’s party is pro-China

His party has also been accused of violence in Sri Lanka. In the 80s, when Disanayake was in JVP, his party carried out armed rebellion and violence against the current government of Sri Lanka. That period is also remembered as the bloody period of Sri Lanka. Disanayake becoming the President can also be a cause of concern for India because his party JVP is considered pro-China.

Dissanayake’s political career

Sri Lanka’s new President Dissanayake’s political career saw many ups and downs. In 1995, he was made the national organizer of the Socialist Students Association, after which he also got a place in the Central Working Committee of the JVP. Before Dissanayake became an MP for the first time in 2000, he was a member of the party’s political bureau for three years. In 2004, he was made the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation in the coalition government with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), although he resigned after a year.

He has always talked about change in the country by keeping Marxist ideology at the forefront. Even in the presidential election campaign, Disanayake had mostly mentioned the issues of students and workers. He had promised the people of Sri Lanka changes in important areas like education, health, transport.

Dissanayake changed the image of his party

Anura Dissanayake was made the president of JVP in 2014. After this, his biggest responsibility was to change the image of the party, which was associated with the rebellion of 1971 and 1987. Dissanayake did this very well and also publicly apologized to the people of Sri Lanka.

Dissanayake contested the presidential election for the first time in 2019, but he got only three percent of the votes. After this, after the economic crisis in Sri Lanka in the year 2022, the JVP party presented itself as an anti-corruption leader in the country, which benefited him a lot.

Read this also: Anura Dissanayake got the most votes in Sri Lanka, yet why did he not become the President? Know where the problem lies