Sri Lanka’s main Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa withdrew his presidential candidature on Tuesday. Both Premadasa and his party will be now supporting the rival candidate and former media minister Dullas Alahapperuma in the presidential election.

Announcing his decision, Premadasa said he was doing it "for the greater good of my country that I love and the people I cherish”.

https://twitter.com/cnnnews18/status/1549254408562569216

"Our alliance and our opposition partners will work hard towards making" Dullas Alahapperuma the winner, Reuters quoted him as saying.

ALSO READ:

Sri Lanka declares emergency again, fuel prices fall first time since Feb | What happened so far

An MP from Matara district, Dullas Daham Kumara Alahapperuma was a former cabinet minister and the popular choice of the governing alliance. Alahapperuma worked as the information minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa government and is said to be close to the Rajapaksa family.

Sajith Premadasa is the son of former Sri Lankan Prime Minister and President Ranasinghe Premadasa. Ranasinghe served as the PM of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1988 and as President from 1989 to 1993. He was killed by the LTTE on May 1, 1993.

Sajith Premadasa started his political career with the United National Party, but now serves as the leader of the Opposition and an MP from Colombo. He was elected the MP for the first time in 2000. Premadasa served as deputy health minister in 2001.

ALSO READ: Sri Lanka declares bankruptcy, what happens next?

On Sunday, Premadasa expressed his concerns over the Presidential polls, saying that the current parliament does not represent the majority opinion of the people.

This is because 225 parliamentarians, comprising Gotabaya Rajapaksa's majority in the Legislative Assembly, have the power to decide the destiny of 22 million Sri Lankans, he told ANI in an exclusive interview.

Premadasa said the island nation needed a fresh election to ensure that the entire system was corrected.

ALSO READ: Three candidates in the fray to become next Sri Lankan PM. Who are they?

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)