President Mahinda Rajapakse and the UPFA succeeded in luring over to government ranks, UNF MP’s Prabha Ganeshan and Digambaram, two up country Tamil MP’s from the Colombo and Nuwara Eliya districts, bringing to 147 the government’s majority in the house. With UNP MPs Abdul Cader, Ranga Bandara and Sri Ranga Jeyaratnam being publicly unhappy campers in the opposition fold, the government is all but assured of its one hundred and fifty members or two thirds of the House. This without counting the SLMC members who are also being wooed and if history repeats itself, Rauf Hakeem may also face in miniature form, what his fellow old Royalist and opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe faces in the UNP. With this move, the initiative towards constitutional reforms that strengthen executive presidential powers may get a new lease of life, though President Rajapakse who has an acute political nose, is sensing that this would be unpopular in the country, though possible in parliament.

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