TNA stakes claim for Lanka opposition leader

Sri Lanka's main Tamil party today staked claim for the post of opposition leader in the parliament, in a new twist amid the jostling for the post.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a letter to Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa said that the post of parliament's opposition leader should be given to the party.
TNA said the government comprises of members from both main Sinhala majority parties, United National Party and Sri Lanka Freedom Party led United People's Freedom Allliance (UPFA) so no member of parliament from the two parties can be the leader of the opposition.
It claimed that having 14 seats out of the 225 members they the party is eligible to hold the post of the opposition leader.

The main Tamil party previously held the parliamentary opposition leader's position between 1977 and 1983.
Earlier this week, the loyalists of former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa made a bid to oust the leader of Opposition Nimal Siripala de Silva, who is close to new President Maithripala Sirisena by submitting a written request to the Speaker for his replacement.

The former President's loyalists handed over a written request to the Speaker with more than 50 signatures to make Dinesh Gunawardena the leader of the opposition.
However, Speaker Rajapaksa, the older brother of the former President, asked the UPFA group to resolve the matter among themselves and report to him.

When Sirisena formed the government with the current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's UNP, ending Rajapaksa's near 10 year rule, de Silva, a SLFP senior was made the parliamentary opposition leader.
The issue became complicated in mid March, when Sirisena inducted some of his SLFP members as ministers to form a unity government.
So de Silva's position as the leader of the Opposition became untenable due to SLFP members sitting with both the government and the opposition.