Who is Ranil Wickremesinghe: All you need to know about the United National Party leader

NEW DELHI: United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on May 12, days after Mahinda Rajapaksa, the brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resigned in the face of escalating anger with the deepening economic crisis.
This would be Wickremesinghe’s sixth stint as prime minister. He has served as minister in several governments and is viewed as something of a survivor in the island nation’s politics.
Here's all you need to know about the new Sri Lankan PM -
* Wickremesinghe, 73, has been in Parliament for 45 years.
* He has wide international connections and is seen as a capable negotiator.
* A lawyer by training, Wickremesinghe was first elected as a lawmaker in 1977.
* He’s served as minister in several governments and first served as premier in the early 1990s.
* He had an unbroken streak in parliament until 2020, when his party was trounced after the Easter Sunday bombings.
* His political party split in 2020 amid a leadership crisis and most senior members left to form a new party, which is currently the country’s main opposition.
* Wickremesinghe's reputation was damaged during his previous term as prime minister, when he was in a difficult power sharing arrangement with former President Maithripala Sirisena.
* An internal conflict and communication breakdown between him and Sirisena was blamed for intelligence lapses that led to Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks in 2019 that killed more than 260 people.
* He was also accused of shielding a friend he appointed as head of the Central Bank from allegations of insider trading.
* He has criticized Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s economic policies, pointing to falling foreign-currency reserves and flagging early on that the the government should seek help from the IMF.
* He has also come under fire from other Sri Lankan politicians in the past for his neo-liberal economic view, including striking a free trade agreement with Singapore.
Sri Lanka is facing the worst economic crisis since its independence. Shortages of everything, from food to basic medicines, have brought angry citizens to the streets over the last many weeks, with several people being killed in violent demonstrations across the country.
(With inputs from agencies)