23.12.2007
by Shamindra Ferdinando

Mr. Anura Bandaranaike has begun moving his goods out of Visumpaya to his house at Rosemead Place built some years and is currently living at his ancestral home in Horagolla.

Both Anura and his sister, Chandrika, built their own houses on the original Rosmead Place compound.

`Tintagel', the Colombo residence of the Bandaranaikes, belonging to the three Bandaranaike children, is now a boutique hotel which was opened earlier this month.

Bandsaranaike left for Horagolla after his crossover to the opposition ahead of the Dec. 14 budget vote. He is expected to continue living there until the transfer of his goods is completed.

Already the entire Visumpaya staff numbering over 100 have been moved out leaving and the UDA in charge of the premises that used to be a state guesthouse until it was converted to a political residence occupied first by Prof. G.L. Peiris and then by Bandaranaike.

During the 1977 J.R. Jayewardene government, Defence Secretary C.A. Dharmapala lived in the sprawling residence shaded by ancient trees.

Well informed sources said that the Presidential Security Division was in charge of security at Visumpaya and was unlikely to move until the MP vacated it.

They said that the government had indicated that Bandaranaike has reached the ``point of no return'' and will not be able to mend fences this time round.

``There will be no coming back for him,'' they said.

Basil Rajapaksa who facilitated Bandaranaike's return to the SLFP fold early this year after he distanced himself from then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's presidential election campaign is out of the country.

Anura was wrong-footed by his crossover ahead of the budget vote.

Courtesy - The Island