Former Sri Lankan Prez Rajapaksa seeks resignation of PM Wickremesinghe

Sri Lanka's former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa has sought resignation of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe after his younger bror Gotabaya Rajapaksa became President, asserting that governance will improve if President and Cabinet are from same party.

"I think it is better if we have General Elections"

dressing media after a religious ceremony organized for his 74th birthday on Monday, Opposition Leer in Parliament said it would be more effective to have a government where President and Cabinet are from one party.

"I think it is better if we have General Elections. Many Cabinet members have alrey stepped down. I think it is more effective to have a Government where President and Cabinet are from same party," Daily Financial Times quoted him as saying.

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Rajapaksa also said that public's decision at ballot box needed to be respected.

Gotabaya was on Monday sworn in as Sri Lanka's seventh President at an ancient Buddhist temple, a venue chosen to reflect massive mandate he got from Sinhalese majority, as he vowed to protect all communities while giving foremost priority to Buddhism.

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"War hero"

70-year-old controversial wartime defense secretary was credited for ending military campaign of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who ran a 30-year war to create a separate Tamil homeland in rth and east of island.

Gotabaya is both respected and reviled in island nation where he is considered a "war hero" by Sinhalese Buddhist majority but mostly distrusted by mirity Tamils.

A former military man, Gotabaya attended counter-insurgency and jungle warfare school in Assam in 1980, served as defense secretary during his elder bror Mahinda Rajapaksa's tenure as president from 2005 to 2014.

Rajapaksa, who was appointed Sri Lanka's Prime Minister by President Maithripala Sirisena in a controversial move, resigned in December as two crucial Supreme Court decisions me embattled former strongman's efforts to cling to premiership untenable.

Rajapaksa was appointed Prime Minister on October 26 by Srisena after sacking Wickremesinghe, which plunged country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

apex court later unanimously declared that dissolution of Parliament by Sirisena was "illegal".

Rajapaksa won power in 2005 and went on to become South Asia's longest-serving leer. He became country's youngest-ever parliamentarian in 1970 at of 24.

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