Chandrika-JVP row ends, full Lanka cabinet formed

The SLFP and the JVP agreed on a compromise formula over Mahaweli row, reports PK Balachanddran.

The crisis over the formation of Sri Lanka's post-election cabinet ended on Tuesday night, with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) agreeing to a compromise formula on the allocation of the portfolio of Mahaweli Development Scheme.

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As per the compromise agreement, President Chandrika Kumaratunga will be the cabinet minister for Mahaweli and her Deputy Minister will be from the JVP. Though the parliamentary election results were out by April 4, the victorious United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) could not form a full cabinet for more than two weeks, because there was disagreement over which none of the alliance parties should get the Mahaweli scheme.

The JVP was promised the irrigation portfolio, but the SLFP did not want to give the whole of it. It wanted the Mahaweli scheme, a very big irrigation scheme, for itself, on the grounds that in the past, this scheme was administered separately from other irrigation schemes.

The JVP said that this was untenable and a breach of promise. An angry JVP said that it would not have its ministers sworn-in until this controversy was settled to its satisfaction. With the result only 31 of the 34-member cabinet could be sworn-in in the first go.

The crisis threatened the alliance itself on the eve of the opening of the new parliament during the election of a Speaker. There were rumours that UPFA, which was seven short of a majority in the House of 225, might not be able to prove its majority in the House. But an eleventh hour agreement was reached when the JVP agreed to the suggestion that President Kumaratunga would be cabinet minister for Mahaweli and her Deputy Minister would be from the JVP.