by Franklin R. Satyapalan

The Peoples Liberation Front (JVP) Leader Somawansa Amerasinghe yesterday said his party would be meeting with Mangala Samaraweera and Sripathi Suriarachchi of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Mahajana Wing) at Battaramulla party head office, on Wednesday(5) "to know their minds."

" We are meeting them with an open mind. We have already mentioned about our own reservations on their deal with the UNP. We don’t think that the country could gain anything positive by going along with the UNP."

He was very emphatic that there would not be any support from the JVP for the UNP.

Political analysts said that this was a clear attempt by the JVP to remain neutral as realignment of forces against the Government were taking shape.

The JVP sources said that at last Tuesday’s Politburo meeting of the party, General Secretary Tilvin Silva had informed that the party had received a letter from Mangala Samaraweera stating that he would like to discuss the SLFP(M) plans for a broader Front against the Government.

While JVP Leader Somawansa Amerasinghe declared that there would be no help from the party for any alliance with the UNP, it was agreed that the party should ask the SLFP(M) to join the JVP to form a grander alliance against the Government.

Amerasinghe said the party should brief Samaraweera on the informal consultations that were underway with some ruling party parlimentarians, trade unionists, including those in the plantation sector, journalists and like minded organizations.

While we have our reservations, we should meet them as they had indicated that they wished to speak to us.

"So we will see what we could do and what we should do.At present the poor people in the country are suffering as a result of a political, economic and a cultural crisis and we believe that the only way out for people is to formulate a new and alternative program to steer the country out of the destructive path taken during the past 30 years," he said.

It was only last Thursday that the SLFP(M Wing) met UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe at the office of the opposition leader at Cambridge Terrace , and it was agreed that both the UNP and the SLFP(M Wing) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlining the outer parameters of their common objectives.