Mahinda Rajapaksa becomes Lanka's new prime minister
Colombo: Sri Lanka's former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday took oath as the new prime minister of the island nation after incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe formally stepped down from his post.
Rajapaksa, the elder brother of the newly-elected President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, will function as the prime minister of the caretaker cabinet until the general election in August 2020.
The 74-year-old leader, who describe himself as "a rebel with a cause", earlier served as the country's president from 2005-2015, becoming South Asia's longest-serving leader. He was also prime minister for a brief period in 2018.
Gotabhaya on Wednesday named Rajapaksa as the new prime minister after incumbent Wickremesinghe announced his resignation from the post following the presidential election debacle.
Gotabaya defeated Wickremesinghe's deputy Sajith Premadasa in the presidential election held on November 16.
Rajapaksa was appointed the prime minister on October 26, 2018 by the then President Maithripala Sirisena, who sacked Wickremesinghe in a controversial move that plunged the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis.
He resigned on December 15 as two crucial Supreme Court decisions made the former strongman's efforts to cling to premiership untenable.
The apex court later unanimously declared that the dissolution of Parliament by President Sirisena was "illegal". Rajapaksa became the country's youngest ever parliamentarian in 1970 at the age of 24.
The two brothers -- Rajapaksa and Gotabaya -- led a decisive campaign that helped end the island nation's three decade long civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
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SIR in Bengal: Bhabanipur records nearly 4 times more voter deletions than Nandigram, EC data shows
Kolkata (PTI): Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhabanipur constituency has recorded nearly four times more deletions from electoral rolls as against opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari’s Nandigram, according to constituency-wise data released by the Election Commission on Friday that highlighted significant variations across West Bengal.
According to a poll panel official, Bhabanipur (Kolkata), which had 1,61,509 voters in the rolls published in January 2025, saw 44,787 names removed in the latest revision, while Nandigram (Purba Medinipur district), with 2,78,212 voters, reported 10,599 deletions.
The commission has classified the deletions under standard categories such as deaths, relocation, and duplication of entries.
In the 2021 Assembly polls, Banerjee lost Nandigram to her one-time party colleague and protege Adhikari, who moved to the BJP just weeks before the election, by a margin of 1,956 votes.
Bhabanipur is not the constituency with the highest number of deletions, the official said.
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Kolkata Port, represented by senior minister and Mayor Firhad Hakim, has recorded 63,730 deletions, the highest in the state.
Tollygunge, held by minister Aroop Biswas, has seen 35,309 deletions, he added.
In constituencies held by key BJP legislators, the deletion numbers are higher than Nandigram but lower than Kolkata Port, he said.
"Asansol South, represented by Agnimitra Paul, has seen 39,202 deletions, while Shankar Ghosh's Siliguri constituency has reported 31,181 deletions," the official said.
According to district-wise data, South 24 Parganas has recorded the highest volume of deletions at 8,16,047.
Incidentally, the district is considered a stronghold of Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, who secured a victory margin of over seven lakh votes in the last Lok Sabha election.
Among the state's 294 Assembly segments, the highest constituency-level deletions occurred in Chowringhee in North Kolkata, represented by Trinamool MLA Nayana Bandyopadhyay.
The constituency has seen 74,553 names removed. The lowest deletions were reported from Kotulpur in Bankura district, where 5,678 names have been removed.
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Overall, more than 58 lakh names have been deleted in the first phase of the SIR process. The Election Commission is scheduled to publish the draft electoral rolls on Tuesday.
